The Take-Up of Medical and GP Visit Cards in Ireland

We examine the take-up of medical and GP visit cards in Ireland using SILC data and SWITCH, the ESRI’s tax-benefit microsimulation model. Using SWITCH, coupled with SILC data, we model a family’s card entitlement,... [ view full abstract ]

We examine the take-up of medical and GP visit cards in Ireland using SILC data and SWITCH, the ESRI’s tax-benefit microsimulation model. Using SWITCH, coupled with SILC data, we model a family’s card entitlement, replicating the medical and GP Visit card means test. In SILC we also observe if families report holding medical or GP visit cards. We contrast this reported evidence with simulations on a family’s entitlement. From here we estimate the portion of families modelled as eligible for each card scheme that take up their card entitlement. We estimate take-up rates of 74 per cent for medical cards and 10 per cent for GP visit cards. Results from a multivariate analysis show those families facing larger health costs due to poor health or chronic illness, lone parent households, recipients of social welfare payments and households where the chief economic supporter is older than 65 were more likely to take-up their card entitlement. On the other hand, a family where the chief economic supporter is self-employed, younger than 26 and single were less likely to take up their card entitlement. Families with private health insurance and who reported having an unmet health need was also much less likely to claim their entitled card.