What happens if you can't afford your medication?

[Frequency]

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?

It covers every single medication you get in that year. So it covers her inhalers but if she also needs antibiotics one month, then eye drops the next it also covers these. You could get 100 prescriptions in that 12 months and it would cover all of them so long as they’re NHS issued.

That suggestion was £3-4 per prescription btw, no matter how many items on.But that should be ALL of the UK counties, not just England keeping it all paid for.

In addition to PP, £11.45 per month is only for the first 10 out of the 12 months, the last two are zero payment.

It works out to £9.54 per month if divided by 12, so worthwhile if you only order 1 item a month. If you order just one prescription every 28 days it's £8.80 for each of the 13 items. Or order every 25 days (which gets approved by my GP) and it's 14 items for £8.18 each.

As OP can afford it, I wonder if it's stubbornness as to why she will continue to pay more for each inhaler by ordering every 6 weeks as needed rather than order every 4 weeks on a prepay and have a couple (or more) available for emergencies. She could then take a few months break between the prepays while using up the medication already in stock.

I know it seems unfair that some of us have to pay when the vast majority do not, but it's the situation we are in and unlikely to change any time soon.

I am happy to take the available help to reduce our costs for vital medication. My husband has a DD for the annual prepay, and I get a 3 month one every now and then and order the max of my meds I can while it is valid.

@cazcaz2the other UK nations get free prescriptions because that’s what their devolved governments have chosen to do with the money they are allotted. The same thing goes for the university fees etc. These are devolved issues - England doesn’t get it because our government has chosen not to give it to us. Nothing to do with unfairness, everything to do with who we choose to elect.

Does pre-pay cover dentist issued also? So long as its an NHS dentist? Because if my son does need to pay prescriptions even on HC2 then would be worthwhile maybe.And for OP?

The system is an arse.
I've had all prescriptions free since Inwas about 30, 65 now, due to needing levothyroxine. I can see the point in the levo being free, but the odd course of AB's I can't. Also all prescriptions are free post 60 and the retirement age is now 66 to 67.
I am still working and paying top rate tax - always have. I don't need free prescriptions.

@Frequency I think your asthma meds should be free alternatively, can you request a 56 day supply?

Then Harvestmouse, it should NO LONGER be called a United Kingdom, cause clearly we are NOT.They shouldnt need 'devolved Govts' only one who makes all those descisions over who pays for what.And no you cant convince me the English folk are not just footing the bill for 'other govts' not deciding to spend their money on it because at end of the day SOMEONE has to pay for the cost of the pills, inhalers etc.And i doubt these 'devolved govts' are receiving enough to allow everyone to have it all free.While we from England are still paying through the nose for prescriptions, university fees etc?? Why doesnt England receive enough to do same then? Or more to point, why has no one asked why they are allowing this??

Your argument for the figure being nonsense was the sample size, but similar surveys by the individual charities show similar results and similar reasoning for the low take-up of the prepaid cards.

A survey by Asthma UK found that 57% of respondents had skimped on or gone without their medication due to costs.

A study by Parkinson's UK also found that respondents reported rationing medication or going without due to costs.

A study by Chron's and Colitis found that a 3rd of patients have rationed medications or not collected one or more prescriptions due to costs.

Posters are banging on about pre-paid certs because, for the vast majority of us, the current system seems to work fine and clearly many people are happy to make a small contribution towards their prescriptions (or get them free). Mine are free now but I was happy to pay before they became free.

The stats in your links don't align with poster's personal experiences.

If there is any outcome from campaigning, my bet would be free scripts would be removed altogether for the selected conditions.

Asthma meds are not free to all, but they should be.My cousin died from an asthma attack, as an adult.Maybe he also had not been able to buy his inhaler,i dont know.But my son has asthma and several of my family (another adult son,&grandkids) but over 16 they too will have to pay.The age for paying for prescriptions should be raised to 18 at least.Whereas one of my drs discussed with me about if i thought i wanted to be on levothyroxine for life, or to "weigh up pros & cons" for it- so clearly it cant be as life threatening as an asthma attack?(i have a serious heart problem so shouldnt have been put on levothyroxine without it being fully considered apparently) -please dont just stop taking it due to what ive said here-ALWAYS disuss things like that fully with your Doctor first.Different people have differing medical problems so needs a doctor or medical consultant to help decide these things.

I think you are right Chewbecca, it probably would, as English govt would go "oh well if they're all happy to pay for these then we can make them all to pay for,save us a few bob" ! And dont mention the 'over 60's' thing either or the blooming govt will raise that as well to 67!🤫

A 3rd of what chrohns suffers. What percentage of chrohns sufferers have to pay, who were actually sampled etc
Those figures you quote are deliberately misleading to make headlines.

Not if you are over 60. My DH is still working full-time and gets his prescriptions free. He only needs one thing and so could easily afford it. I think it should be 67.

I know that if my student son had not been home for the break then he would not have been able to just go buy his medication as by then he had run out of grant money.I paid it but we were never allowed to claim that or his dental bill back, even though he had been sent wrong HC form out.

They did look into it but there was a government press release sometime last year saying they weren't going to do it. Would have seemed an easy win to me but they were probably put off by all the whining about the winter fuel payment.

Well igelKott2026, you clearly have enough to afford this- and are amongst the 'better off' over 60's- but an awful lot are not.

Surely you only need this once in 3 months, so if you put by £1 a week you’d be able to afford the inhaler every 2 months

It's not stubbornness; it's the fact that it will cost me more. Even if I did order more inhalers than I need to make the prepaid cert worth it, all that means is I have less money and more inhalers than I need. I don't get why that is so hard to understand?

I agree it is a useful tool for people who need 12 more items a year, but I don't. I use around 9 a year (one approx every 6 weeks), which costs roughly £86.

I also don't understand what that has to do with any of what I asked in the OP?

Oh, so you consider that as folk 'whining' about winter fuel paymentdo you??And again, maybe you are amongst the more well off over 60's then,so you dont need the winter fuel payment either?But many over 60's do-AND the free prescriptions- even working ones,some are only on low earnings-or part time- so maybe the WFP & Free scripts should be means tested then, if only to stop the Higher Earners over 60's taking it from the most who need them.

You're probably conservative i think.

Above comments were for igelKott2026, not OP

Yes, the numbers don't make any sense. Given the majority of people don't pay prescriptions, it's difficult to believe that a third of those who do pay and who have chronic health conditions - regularly ration prescriptions due to affordability.

I would like to see what questions were asked. I wonder if this question "could you afford £10 per month for all your essential prescriptions" would generate different stats.

OP- I understand about the 9 inhalers a year being cheaper, BUT, if your condition worsens at all then you would need to use it more- hence need to buy more overall, and also a bonus is if it covers other items over the year you MIGHT need, any antibiotics or steroid tablets if your asthma worsens, or any creams etc.Then yes it would be cost effective.

And I still don't understand why some prescriptions are free because they're classed as ongoing and chronic or whatever thyroid meds are classed as, and some, like inhalers and EpiPens, aren't. It just doesn't make sense.

The reason it doesn't appear to make sense is because the list was created in 1968 when prescription charges were re-introduced.

The conditions that are exempt from charges were ones considered serious conditions that had a regular and reliable treatment available at the time.

Asthma inhalers, for example, weren't common place yet at that time, so weren't included.

The only change to the list since 1968 was in 2009 when Gordon Brown added cancer patients to it.

No government has been willing to touch it beyond that.

i had surgery which needed dressings, ended up needing dressings for 3 months, every box of dressings was the cost of a prescription, the micropore, and in the beginning the dressings all fell off, since then i have had prepayment - at that time i paid for 3 months in advance after the initial shock of the cost - now that is unfair