Question – What do you get when you mix political stupidity, grasping greed and gross incompetence?
Answer – A ripped off taxpayer.
During a discussion on RTE (1st report, 2nd item), political correspondent for the Irish Times Stephen Collins revealed that doctors get €640 for every medical card patient over the age of 70. This is in stark contrast to the €180/200 they get for all other medical card patients. How did this outrageous situation come about?
In the 2000 budget the then Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy stupidly announced, without any consultation whatsoever, that all citizens over the age of 70 would be automatically entitled to a medical card.
Because of McCreevy’s stupidity in not negotiating first, the doctors were able to extract the enormous and immoral fee from incompetent civil servants. These civil servants are probably the same idiots who ‘negotiated’ the fees for tribunal lawyers.
As for the doctors? Well, there was a time when the medical profession was held in high esteem. Now, they’re down there, feeding in the gutter with priests, politicians, policemen, solicitors, estate agents and all the other so called pillars of society.