Vicky Phelan: ‘Cancer patients should not have to fight debt collectors’
Cancer patients should not have to fight debt collectors as well as an illness, says Vicky Phelan.
“People with cancer should have an automatic entitlement to a medical card because you are in a situation where you can’t work.”
Ms Phelen was responding to the Irish Cancer Society’s call on the HSE to stop the “disgraceful practice” of cancer patients being chased by debt collectors.
Society’s chief executive Averil Power said debt collectors were causing added fear and stress to cancer patients.
“The last thing they need is the added stress and fear of being hounded by debt collectors, sometimes for as little as €80,” said Ms Power.
“The HSE must stop this cruel and unnecessary practice immediately.”
Ms Phelan, who has helped women and families affected by the CervicalCheck scandal, said she could not believe that patients were being chased by debt collectors.
She said she had applied for a medical card when she was receiving chemotherapy and the effort was as draining as the treatment.
She was refused and after reapplying, wrongly thought it had been sent out in the post — the card was for her husband who was a mature student at the time.
“Mature students were entitled to a medical card and here was I with cancer trying to get a medical card and I could not get one,” she said on RTÉ radio yesterday.
Ms Phelan agreed with the Irish Cancer Society that cancer patients should not be hounded by debt collectors.
“You should not have to be fighting debt collectors as well as an illness at the same time. It’s disgraceful,” she said.
Léa Hearst, a breast cancer patient living in Dublin, said she was really grateful to the Irish Cancer Society for raising the issue.
I was shocked when I started getting calls and letters on a regular basis from a debt collection agency. I found this extremely upsetting in the middle of fighting my cancer.
To be charged for basic treatment was hard to take in the first place, but to have that charge sent to a debt collector added a great deal of stress to a very difficult situation.
The Irish Cancer Society has published advice for patients dealing with collection agencies and found that at one hospital, expenditure on debt collection rose by 455% between 2011 and 2017.
It believes the increased expenditure on debt collection targets is a “clear sign” that the use of debt collectors is being encouraged by the HSE.
The HSE said it has “a statutory obligation” to charge and collect the charges and hospitals have the discretion to operate payment plans where appropriate.
“If any patient has difficulty paying a hospital bill, we would advise they contact their hospital directly to discuss this on a one-to-one basis,” said the HSE.
Meanwhile, Ms Phelan said she “broadly welcomed” the independent tribunal on the cervical cancer tests controversy, but added that “more urgency” is needed in setting it up.
Legislation would be required and it now looks like it will take until the end of next year before it is set up.
“Obviously, with the primary focus on Brexit legislation early next year, this will be way down the list of priorities. That is a big worry for us.”
Ms Phelan said she is also concerned that they might be more adversarial because the hearings will be in private and there will be no onus on the barristers to check themselves.
