Legislation to allow free GP visits for everyone over 70 has begun its passage through the Oireachtas. The law will affect nearly 40,000 people who do not have a medical card or GP visit card.

This follows similar moves to provide free GP services for all children under six and replaces current arrangements for over-70s, where access is means-tested.

However, their dependants, including spouses and partners under 70, will continue to be means-tested for free access to their doctor.

Minister of State for Health Kathleen Lynch, who introduced the Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill, told the Dáil that the Government remained committed to the introduction of a universal free GP service to the entire population.

Ms Lynch said that of the approximately 400,000 people in Ireland over the age of 70, 36,000 must pay to attend their GP.

“Medical evidence suggests that there is a significantly greater incidence of multiple chronic conditions among people over the age of 70,” she said.

Complicated system

The Minister said the means-tested legislative framework had produced a very complicated eligibility system, which made it almost impossible for a person to know whether or not they qualified for a medical card.

She said the Government was in the process of reorientating the health system from one that only treated sick people to one that kept them well, which was why a universal health system was the best option.

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said the Government had twice brought forward legislation to take medical cards from the over-70s and to deny them a GP-visit card.

He said the Bill was “really making up lost ground in terms of giving the over-70s access to GPs, but it is not reinstating the medical card per se, although that was the election rallying cry for a long time”.

Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said that what was being offered was not a medical card. “It does not allow for X-rays, blood tests or emergency department visits.”