THE GOVERNMENT WILL not be opposing a motion put forward today by the Social Democrats on the real cost of cancer.
There was cross-party support for the Social Democrats motion today which calls for an inpatient charge of €80 per visit for chemo and radiotherapy to be scrapped as well as the cessation of debt collectors being sent out to cancer patients for failure to pay.
Extortionate parking fees have also been highlighted as an expensive cost for cancer patients whose incomes may already be badly hit by loss of income.
The party states that it has been conservatively estimated that the cost for cancer care is between €756 and €1,000 per month.
Social Democrats Health Spokesperson Róisín Shortall told the Dáil this morning that many cancer patients find themselves at the “sharp end of our two tier health system”, incurring the €80 inpatient charges and extortionate parking charges.
Some patients find out about the inpatient charge on the morning of their first chemo session, she said.
“How did we get to a place as a country that we are sending debt collectors after people who’ve had a cancer diagnosis?” asked SocDems TD Cian O’Callaghan.
He said it is not enough for the Government to fail to oppose our the motion.
“They need to act on it – and provide timescales for delivery.”
‘Unconscionable’
Shortall said it is unconscionable that cancer patients are being pursued by debt collection agencies for bills related to their chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.
“If you do not have a medical card or private health insurance, every chemotherapy or radiotherapy appointment costs €80, to a maximum of €800 per annum. Invoices are often sent out to patients within days of their first treatment being administered – and, if they are not paid within six weeks, debt collection agencies are hired to pursue the debt,” she said.
She said it is “frankly disgusting” that patients, while they are at their most vulnerable in the middle of their treatment, are put under this kind of unnecessary strain.
A cancer diagnosis causes enough trauma and distress without hospitals heaping further financial pressure onto patients through their callous use of these agencies, she said.
The party has cited a 2019 report from the Irish Cancer Society, which conservatively estimates the additional costs of €756 per month to €1,000 per month.
Given the increase in the cost of living since 2019, it is likely these figures are now higher, said Shortall.
Scrapping charges
The motion calls for the €80 inpatient charge to be abolished for cancer patients; for debt collection agencies to no longer be used by public hospitals and for the commitment in the programme for government, to introduce caps on parking charges, to be immediately introduced.
Labour’s Duncan Smyth said what is not needed now is “tea and sympathy” from Government.
He commended the motion for very clearly laying out the cost of cancer care for patients.
The motion speaks to the “cost of trying to stay alive”.
He said the first thought a person who has been diagnosed should be is on their treatment and their journey ahead not on whether they can afford the treatment.
This is treatment that people are getting through the public system, he added, stating that the debt collections “just has to change”.
The response has to be “unequivocal from Government”, said Smyth.
To date, €4.3 million of HSE money has been spent on debt collectors, he said.
“It’s immoral and it has to stop,” he told Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
‘It is utterly wrong’
Sinn Féin’s Ruairí Ó Murchú said debt collection agencies being used on cancer patients “is utterly wrong, it has to stop, we all agree on that” .
He said it is not beyond ability of Government to find a solution to this problem.
People Before Profit’s Gino Kenny said it was “ludicrous” that cancer patients should be chased for money, stating that a constituent of his own was pursued for payments while she was getting chemo treatments.
People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy said hospital parking charges need to end now, stating that it has been years since a cap on hospital charges was promised.
Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould said he has serious concerns about the delay in cancer diagnoses caused by the pandemic.
Aontú’s Peadar Toíbín raised the issue of some cancer treatment drugs being available to private patients, but not available to public patients stating that he knows of one woman who formed an allergy to one drug, was told there was an alternative, but as she was a public patient, it was not available to her.
Independent TD Catherine Connolly questioned why Health Minister Stephen Donnelly was in Dubai at present instead of in the chamber today, and criticised the government for commodifying healthcare. (Donnelly is attending a health conference in Dubai at the moment).
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy welcomed the response of the minister but said that she did not hear a clear response as to whether the Government would move to scrap the charges and tackle the parking charge issues.
She said more needs to be done to help the group of people that do not qualify for a medical card but cannot afford health insurance.
Having a debt collector land on your door when you are dealing with a cancer diagnosis has to stop, said Murphy.
Junior Minister Anne Rabbitte in her response said the Government is keen to make progress to give universal treatment to all, rather than having a focus on the ability to pay.
She said the Government will work to ensure that patients get fast diagnoses regardless of their ability to pay.
On the issue of debt collectors, she said the health minister has been reassured that debt collection is operated at local hospital level, and is done so in a socially responsible, “ethical and cost efficient way”.
When asked about the motion today in the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the “Government is constantly looking at charges” in terms of inpatient and paediatric charges on an “ongoing basis”.
“We will take your motion into account,” he said.
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