Some time ago I scribbled off a post.

It was on the subject of my little tussle with officialdom and how myself, the Social Welfare and the Health service were batting letters and forms between us like some weird game of Pong.  I would send a form to the Social Welfare and they would send it back demand more info, while the Health mob were complaining that the information that I had sent them didn’t tally with what they had from Social Welfare and could I please fill out another form.  Or something like that.

It all started when Herself reached “a certain age” and became entitled to a Doctors Visiting Card which means she wouldn’t have to pay to see the doctor.

I don’t know where the cock-up happened.  Did I send off the wrong form?  Did I send the right form to the wrong people? Did I send the right form to the right address but the wrong people read it?  Are they just so tangled up in bureaucracy that they haven’t a fucking clue?  I tend to vote for the latter.

I have been waiting for some weeks to see if they would ever send the card.  I did get a phone call from the Health mob in the early days to say that they were dealing with it and that I would hear from them “shortly”.  They rang me to say this which I thought strange.

I had almost forgotten about it but I got a letter the other day from the Health crowd.  Naturally I assumed they were looking for more forms, or bank statements or complaining that Social Welfare weren’t talking to them any more.  I opened it.

Yes!  There was her card.  And about fucking time too.

But it wasn’t a Doctors Visiting Card.  It was a Medical Card.  And they had included one for me too even though I didn’t ask for it.

A medical card not only entitles us to free doctors visits but also prescriptions at a more reasonable rate.  In fact there is a whole rake of stuff we are now entitled to.  I get a reduced rate of tax!  I may be entitled to free schoolbooks.  I think I may even be entitled to a cash grant of €10.16 on the birth of my child added added to which I get maternity and childcare bonuses!

And best of all, the Health shower reckon I will live to an expiry date of November ’21.

And we all know that Public Health know more about my health than I do.