Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, CEO of the Irish Cancer Society Averil Power said cancer patients without a medical card or private health insurance face inpatient charges of up to €800 a year for treatment such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
Where the charges are not paid within 47 days, HSE policy is that they may be pursued by a debt collection agency.
“These are patients who are very sick, who are already having to cope with the emotional and physical impact of cancer.
“To be pursued in such a frightening way by your public hospital system is incredibly unfair.”
Call for halt to collection agencies pursuing cancer patients (RTÉ)
Listen to RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland item here
Pic: BBC
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Why am I not shocked. We’ll fix ya then make ya sicker
Why don’t the ICS cover the bills for hard luck cases? Or even half? surely this exactly why charities exist. no? I didn’t think so. They have the money. But Irish Charities are what they are. they provide “emotional” support (ie nothing) they are a bit of a “isn’t my time a tax” Geldof types.
hard luck cases
Jesus pat you are a total f u p p i n g b o o b o o p a n t s
HA! you got E D I T E D anyway. no getting past the broadsheet mods today. Why did my use of ‘hard luck cases’ trigger you anyway? It not offensive language, is it?
So that’s where Averil went. Nice job if you can get it.
I’ve heard it’s a dreadful place to work, more political than the Dail.
We are becoming so American :(
47 days. jeepers. People generally have to take time off work during chemo rounds.
What’s the legal requirement for wages during chemo, does anyone know? Like if I had to take 6 weeks off to go through chemo (knock on wood) would I be at risk of homelessness?
Employers in Ireland are under no obligation to pay you for being off sick. In fact you can be sacked. *If* you have a sufficient number of PRSI contributions in the *relevant* qualifying period, you may qualify for sickness benefit. €198 per week for single person. Otherwise, you’re all on your own.
After a hospital stay last year, I paid my €720 bill off in installments when I got paid every other week. I couldn’t afford to do it any faster than that and they passed it on to a debt collection agency. I only had €80 left on the bill so I paid that to the hospital, but the debt collectors kept harassing me because I didn’t pay it to them. I ended up having to get onto the hospital accounts section to confirm that I had no outstanding payments to make in order to stop them ringing me every other day.
I’m sorry you had to deal with that Daisy, its bad enough dealing with illness without having to deal with debt collectors.
Thanks. I don’t object to paying, but given the circumstances, allowances need to be made to give people a longer time frame to pay hospital bills along with life’s other bills.
Ireland has a cr@ppy system where many people have an income that is too high for a medical card but too low for private insurance.
I would go full universal health insurance, with co-payments depending on income.
Poor should pay a little, and the rich a lot more.
buck me, this country is some kip..
This is really low. Ireland has to decide if we want be like America or Europe. Being like America means killing the sick earlier, overcharging them for treatment and medicine, and having zero compassion. Really disgusting
The European approach to healthcare is far more Humane.
Actually US healthcare is really, really good. It’s just very expensive.
US life expectancy is artificially low because of gun prevalance (mainly additional suicides) and the fact that they crash their cars alot.
If you are really sick there is nowhere in the world better than a teaching hospital in a big US city.
It doesn’t really matter if it was cancer or something else, the woman was clearly very ill. To go chasing someone like that is not the mark of a civilised society, especially given the amount of money being squandered by those very same people.
Disgusting.