Around 20,000 elderly people are due to lose their medical card entitlements today as a two-month grace period, authorised by Health Minister Mary Harney, comes to an end.

The cost-cutting measure, which was the subject of massive protests following October's Budget, sees pensioners on an income of €700 per week, or a couple's income of €1,400, losing their free health care.

The Health Service Executive has written to 350,000 elderly people informing them of the changes. But campaign group Age Action Ireland revealed it had received a "steady stream" of worried callers intimating they would not be returning their cards because they "could not afford it".

However, the HSE claimed that ineligible cards would be rendered invalid.