NHS prescription charge

[MrTurtleLikesKisses]

I have had hyperthyroidism for 13 years. I picked up my prescription yesterday and paid the £8.60 prescription charge for my 30 tablets (annoyingly, if I had hypothyroidism, my medication would be free ).
Anyway, it suddenly struck me that £8.60 is a lot for a drug that I know has been around for a long time, so I looked online. Sure enough, it looks like it's available to buy, without a prescription, from abroad for a heck of a lot cheaper than £8.60 for 30.
So, have I been a mug all these years? Should I just buy it online? Or should I suck it up and pay the prescription charge like everyone else?

Can you get a private prescription, plus the drugs for less than the £9 a month you're currently paying?

We have a (free) work doctor, so my inhalers are available from the same regular pharmacies for around £3 cost to me.
TBH the £6 cost saving isn't the issue, it's the not having to wait 2 weeks and take the afternoon off to see my GP that I prefer.

It's swings and roundabouts. My prescription migraine meds are £7.38/dose and I get six in a prescription.

My old meds were £25/dose.

Some times my meds are cheaper than I pay for, often they cost more than I pay. It all comes even eventually.

I thought only 10% of people paid for prescriptions anyway? I have a pre payment and I asked for 2 months worth of HRT meds to be told that they only allow 1 month to be supplied at a time.

I now have to drive 6 miles, to get the prescription every month. It seems thought from this thread that it depends who/where you are as to whether the GP will allow more than 1 month's supply

My meds would cost me £140 a month

Sorry, no help at all. But

The NHS prescription charge is a basically a tax - it is the same regardless of the cost of the medicine. Yes the cost of some drugs is only pennies and that is frustrating, but some drugs costs thousands.

Average ingredient cost of a prescription item is around £8, that is before you are in dispensing fees etc so the £8.60 charge is fairly reasonable.

The biggest issues are that we have the highest costs for generics in Europe and the huge amount of waste time there is in the system.

"Can you get a private prescription, plus the drugs for less than the £9 a month you're currently paying?"

Would you be willing to pay the private consultation fees and fees for investigations? Or would you want those for free?

My GP will prescribe 3 months of thyroxine, but only 28 days of my other medication. Despite my consultant asking them to prescribe for longer, and me having had to take it for over a decade so far and for the rest of my life... It's very frustrating.

However, because if the thyroxine I don't pay for prescriptions. It's good, but it's very unfair that my second cousins, who both have CF, will have to as soon as they turn 16. I'll suffer without mine, they'll die without theirs.

Prescription pricing works so that you contribute to the cost of prescription medicines rather than paying towards your own prescription cost. Your drugs may cost 50p, but if you pay your prescription charge, the remaining £8.10 contributes towards the cost of another patient's drugs which cost more than their charge.

I pay the pre-payment certificate of £10.40 per month. Each month my drugs cost

Naproxen £2.84
Nortriptyline 20.00
Frovatriptan £38
Omeprazole £3.00
Topiramate £28.00

So I get almost £92 of drugs for £10.40, and save £31.60 in prescription charges.

Someone with diabetes gets their prescriptions free.

Someone who's had a kidney transplant has to pay for theirs.

But neither can survive without their medication.

8.60 a month? That is a bargain. If you had to pay the actual cost of your medication it would be a lot more.
Which you'll probably soon find out if you vote the Tories in.

True ! Either everyone should pay - or no one should pay ! Or have insurance like America ?

Yes, paying for life saving meds for people without money is bad.

That you Theresa?

I think you should be able to get two months' worth at a time if you ask.

I think it's mad that as I have an under active thyroid ALL my prescriptions are free, not just my thyroid meds. Why??

*user1490522234

I think it's a disgrace how people who don't work get their prescriptions free, yet us hard working people who pay tax and ni have to pay £8.60 for every single item,

True ! Either everyone should pay - or no one should pay ! Or have insurance like America ?*

^ So those people who are too ill and/or disabled to work should go without prescriptions if they can't afford them due to not being able to work because of their medical conditions? Even though they are likely to need more medication?

Either everyone should pay - or no one should pay !

Think about the lack of logic in that.

Working person who can afford (either easily or by scrimping) pays for prescription.

Non-working person can't scrimp therefore doesn't pay for prescription.

Which of those two people do you think will ultimately cost the NHS a hell of a lot more than a prescription charge when their diabetes/asthma/infection/heart issue gets out of control?

The list of conditions that entitle people to free prescriptions is something that should be looked at, but won't be - it won't be because there are conditions now that merit free prescriptions that weren't thought of at the time the list was created. It would cost too much.

The admin cost in making only related prescriptions free for people would be massive. Also who'd decide what was related and what wasn't. My diabetic daughter gets frequent urine infections and even the doctors disagree over the relatedness (is that a word?) of the two.

Some people who work are actually worse off financially than those on benefits !

Some people who work are actually worse off financially than those on benefits

And aren't they lucky that they only have to pay a prescription charge and not the actual price of the meds?

user1490522234 goody bullshit

My mate is a self-employed journalist in the USA. She is a single mum to 2 kids after her dickhead ex traded her in for a younger model and refuses to pay towards his children.

Her son is now 14. He's been severely asthmatic all his life. When his Dad fucked off, the family were no longer covered by his employer's health insurance.

The boy is rushed into A&E as a charity case every month or so, because his mum can't afford health insurance or to buy him inhalers. His Dad does nothing to assist his son.

My mate has desperately tried to get a job with health insurance included for the last 5 years, but can't get one.

How the hell is this ok?

User - hope you have your tin hat after that comment. Plenty will jump in stating its not their fault they cannot job, they had a bad start in life, they hooked up with feckless men. Everything bar trying us to take personal responsibility for our own decisions.

I once mentioned on a thread that I was in a nail salon on my day off and two young women with a girl of about 8 walked in. Neither of them worked. All got their nails done and then complained that their benefits were not due meaning that they would miss a party where they were planning to get legless that Friday.

I was told that they had maybe saved up for months as a once in a year treat (with a loyalty card!). Someone even said why shouldn't they have these sorts of treats.

The whole place heard the plans for the weekend. Their waste of space ex's.

That is what we are now fighting against. The sense of entitlement that some have has got to stop.

I was slaughtered and told it was a once a year treat etc etc

Some people who work are actually worse off financially than those on benefits !

How will moving the prescription help from people who are receipt of benefits (many of who are UNABLE to work) help that exactly?

If all prescriptions were made free of charge, where would the cash come from for that? Higher taxes? How will that help poorly paid workers?

There will always be some people just outside of entitlement for anything, however, things cannot be free for all, unless you want to have tax levels so high no one can actually afford to work and live.

There seem to be a lot of people having kids with the feckless. I agree that sometimes the state needs to step in but why is it always the state that has to pick up the pieces when someone makes a bad decision often time and time again?

Some people who work are actually worse off financially than those on benefits !

How will changing the prescription charge help them?

Making people on benefits (who don't all qualify for free prescriptions btw - contribution based ESA, for example, doesn't qualify someone for free scripts) pay for their prescriptions won't actually help working people who struggle.

I do think the low income help available toward prescriptions should be more advertised - as should the availability of the pre-payment certificate.

I've just looked on Chemistdirect and my repeat medications would cost me £4.48 to buy from them, but add on the cost of posting my prescription to them and the delivery charge of £3.49 and it wouldn't be much different to the £8.60 I have to pay every month. GP used to do a two-monthly prescription but now they'll only supply enough for one.