Smear Tests No Longer Covered by Medical Card

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Tuesday March 16, 2004 12:13 by Joleen Kuyper joleenkuyper at eircom dot net

Cervical Smear Tests are no longer covered by the medical card and the only reason I found out about this was a notice in my doctor's office. How can the government do this without even letting the people know?

While waiting to see my doctor recently I had a look at some of the notices on the board. One was a list of various procedures no longer covered by the medical card. There were quite a few, but the most outrageous was smear tests. I saw nothing about this on the national news, I was unaware the government were even discussing it. It may seem like a small issue in comparison with the other things the Irish government are doing against the will or without the knowledge of the people but this makes it all the more important that we do not ignore this issue. There are women who will not be able to aford to have regular smear tests done if they are not covered by their medical card - are they doomed therefore to die of cervical cancer? All the time I hear how important it is for women to do regular breast checks, have a smear test every three years, in order to catch any sign of cancer early enough to stop it and receive treatment. I thought that was something we now had a right to, being part of a modern country like Ireland. it seems it is only the case as long as we can afford to pay for it.