Govt could choose phased nursing home fee repayments
The Government has said it is considering a phased repayment of nursing home charges to medical card patients over a number of years.
Finance Minister, Brian Cowen, has confirmed that any repayments this year would be made by supplementary estimates and would not affect existing medical services.
But the total bill, estimated to be up to €2bn, will have to factored into future budgets.
Minister Cowen has said plans for repayments are underway.
Mr Cowen said: “We will bring forward a supplementary estimate this year in respect of any liability that is due and obviously take account of the increased cost in the future in the term of future budgets.
“That is the way we have handled other issues such as this in the past in terms of the Hepatitis C issues in terms of the Army Deafness issues and all of those questions.”
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