What happens if you can't afford your medication?

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I can btw, this is not a begging thread, but I'm taking the money from my savings, and I don't always have money in my savings, which has got me pondering.

If I didn't have savings and my asthma medication ran out, is there a scheme where I can buy now, pay later, or is it a case of risking death or needing A&E?

Are there any other life-saving medications you have to pay for, or is it just asthma? I know my mum gets free prescriptions because she needs thyroid medication, but that doesn't seem as serious or life-threatening as asthma to me.

What's the criteria for a medication being free, and why doesn't it seem to make sense?

Do you mean if you earn MORE than those figures?
I still don't accept that a person can't budget £9.50 a month for medication.

And you can get a loan in the first month of a claim?

No. As I said less than those figures

I sometimes wonder what planet some of you live on that you can't grasp that someone could be a penny over for support and struggle

I know, it's nuts. I have a friend who is a multimillionaire who takes thyroxine and has done for more than 30 years. She gets all her prescriptions free, regardless of what they are for.

You need to stop comparing your needs to thyroid medication. Thyroid issues used to go undiagnosed many years ago. Many of those who were undiagnosed ended up in homes, diagnosed instead with mental health issues. Left untreated, it's the sort of thing that can leave people mumbling in the corner.

The beginning of these more severe symptoms start out as looking just like forgetfulness, so when you say your mum won't die when she forgets to take her thyroid medication, you're missing that this forgetfulness is actually a symptom of her thyroid issues and it can be a slippery slope from there.

Correct diagnosis and treatment of thyroid issues has saved money as it has kept many people out of prematurely being confined to aged care homes.

As others have mentioned, talk to your GP about getting more than one inhaler on your script.

A neighbour of ours aunt died from an asthma attack!

Might be a preventer inhaler rather than the blue emergency one?

Not everyone on UC gets free prescriptions

Have you looked at the Low Income Scheme https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-low-income-scheme

I did it many years ago as a student but it applies to lots of situations

I am pretty sure you have it the wrong way round?
www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/help-with-health-costs/help-with-health-costs-for-people-getting-universal-credit/

If they're going through it that much, they still need to talk to their GP. My reliever is my preventer. I may use it a few times a month apart from when I'm unwell

You said you don’t qualify if you earn less than that amount.

Everything I can see states "You’re only entitled if your earnings during your last assessment period were; £435 or less . . . " which is the opposite of what you said?

Gosh you are lucky! I take my fostair twice, three times daily, plus blue reliever when needed (eg when get woken by an asthma attack)

But I didn't know what numbers you were using, only that the outcome was wrong.

£9.50 (ish) is what it costs with the certificate. Per month.

Near enough, it’s £11.40 monthly, so what, less than £2 a month more? £22 ish over the year to not have to worry about needing more prescriptions, worth it!

It's not.

It's £9.54 per month, overall. But the £114.5 is paid across ten months (like council tax) so the payment is £11.40, but only for ten months, not twelve. Then you get two months off. Seems fair to me.

I haven’t read all the comments but you’d die pretty quickly without thyroid medication if you needed it….

The cost of a prepayment certificate is £114.50, so £9.54 and a tiny bit.

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-prescription-prepayment-certificate-ppc

It is cheaper if you average one prescription a month. I don't know where you got your numbers from.

It's because the NHS quotes £11.45pm, but that's because they do it over ten months.
The overall cost is cheaper (I'm sure it didn't used to be!).

It’s because thyroid medication needs to be taken daily. Skipping days becomes a risk to life and affects every cell in your body.

Not the same for epi pens.

Have you explained your difficulties to your GP?
If you don’t qualify for any of the previous options of a prepaid plan (I think there’s an option to even pay direct debit) then ask for two inhalers so your prescription charges are reduced to just six times a year. A surgery can supply two, or even three months of medication in one prescription, even if they say they can’t.

It's 32p a day. If you are on the breadline/benefits then you don't pay for prescriptions.

I take thyroxine only 5 days a week! 100mcgs per day and none at the weekends! I have another endocrine disease though which could kill me far faster than stopping my thyroxine! I’m awaiting lifesaving surgery for that.

Never heard of this before. 99.9% of patients take daily thyroxine. Good to see the whataboutery is alive in every corner of the internet though.

I've had asthma since childhood and take two different inhalers (one preventer, one reliever) and used to buy 2 prescriptions a month (i used to get the prepayment certificate and it worked out cheaper). I now have to take thyroid meds too, and qualify for free prescriptions. Without either medications, I'm sure I'd be quite unwell... but I agree, the system is flawed and it doesn't make sense to me why people with asthma have to buy their prescriptions.