PARENTS ARE BEING encouraged to share their stories about medical cards with the Jack & Jill Foundation.

Its CEO Jonathan Irwin made the call as pressure mounted on Minister for Health James Reilly and the HSE over the issue.

The foundation is calling on the government to “fix this broken medical card system so that Ireland’s children in most need are granted their medical card in their own right”, said Irwin, or to fast track the applications of children under Jack & Jill’s care as they are a special case.

Earlier today, Reilly said at an Oireachtas committee meeting that there has been no change in policy in relation to medical cards in this country. He rejected the suggestion that the Government has been specifically targeting medical card holders.

The Budget 2014 announcement yesterday included mention of a medical card review in order to raise €113m in savings, raising concerns that people would lose their medical cards.

This evening, Irwin said that this issue “is now turning into a crisis as more families go public and share the reality of discretionary medical cards”.

He said that his wife, Senator Mary Ann O’Brien is “asking the tough questions at the Oireachtas committee meetings”.

Parents who are still waiting for medical cards, or have been refused, are invited to share their story with Jack & Jill.

Read: “There has been no change in policy in relation to medical cards” – James Reilly>