What should be free but isn't

[mummyrabbitpeppapig]

I'll start. Sanitary protection and condoms.

Some LAs run a scheme for free (or heavily discounted) washable nappies, to whoever mentioned. Worth checking.

Fruu - they do give out free to those who do not pay for prescriptions - on the minor ailment scheme - stopping them needing to go to the doc to get a free prescription.

(so 75p's worth of paracetamol rather than £40 worth of doctor's time)

Clean water supply for homes (not commercial properties).

Prescription medication (but not otc unless high amounts needed)

Education for vocational careers (teachers, Drs, nurses, dentists, opticians, paramedics, social workers, vets going into farm work, health therapists, I'm sure there's more...) BUT they have to work in public service for 5 years minimum following training.

Agree with abortions on mainland for NI citizens

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-40271763

Why are they being treated as if they're not British? Outrageous!

Public transport not free but nationalised. I remember when buses were 'corporation' they were cheaper, more frequent and more used.

Home energy nationalised. Absolutely outrageous that something so fundamental was privatised.

I also think we should have a U.K. Wide wifi paid for via something similar to tv licence. It's become/is becoming a modern essential.

Hospital car parking: free to workers and patients/visitors. Surely some kind of pass/validation scheme could be introduced?

Primary school lunches BUT I'd stop it being commercially supplied. Put REAL kitchens back in the schools and employ proper cooks not 'lunchtime supervisors' then it becomes much cheaper to provide nutritionally balanced freshly cooked from scratch meals. I went school in the 70's and was a very fussy eater yet I loved school dinners. There was a choice of 2 options for each course (starter, main, dessert but you could only have 2 courses), perfectly feasible too that 2 choices can encompass veggie, halal, kosher, gluten free etc the food was delicious and many pupils went up for 'seconds' if there were any leftovers. Teachers supervised and you HAD to eat your veg (at least half). Yes there'd need to be allowances for eg children with special needs but for the most part kids respond well to good clear guidelines.

I'm sure all these things will be included in the next Labour manifesto. They will be "fully costed" by trebling the cost of prescriptions for people earning over £80k and also making them pay for NHS treatment and the use of state schools. And they can pay for a drink of water.

I'm amazed at some of the things people think should be "free" (because of course, it's never free, someone has to pay for it).

If so many people are making GP appointments to get paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen, maybe the NHS would be better off handing it out for free to everyone at pharmacies. If it costs pennies a box in most of the big shops I can't imagine it'd be expensive for the NHS to buy it in bulk.

The point is, surely, that it costs pennies a box so why can't the patient pay?

Water fountains airside on airports. So because of terrorists, we can no longer take bottles (over 100ml) through, we are forced to buy water airside, and at vastly inflated prices. 3.50 euros for 3/4 of a litre last week . At our destination it was 94 cents for 6 litres. . Travelling with 6 people in warm weather, it's such a bloody racket. Really makes me fume.

Re free sanpro, someone mentioned free mooncups. I've had mine for 7 years and it cost £21 so a worthwhile investment and could be just rinsed (I sterilise mine at the end of each month, but I don't think you have to do that )

Absolutely more happy for my taxes and NI to be spent on any of these suggestions, and I'm happy to pay more if its needed. I'd rather have better public services than more money in my savings account.

Yes to lifetime illnesses and I think it's ridiculous that inhalers aren't included. Asthma kills.
There had been times and I am sure I am not alone in this where I have had to make difficult choices between inhalers or gas/electric.
That choice has cost more to everyone than it would have if I could get the inhalers for free.

I don't think it should be reusable sanpro that should just be free but all. As pointed out homelessness is a problem in this country as is poverty. Reusable adds to bills - water meters, electric, washing powder. Might not seem a lot to some, but to others it is an issue.

I also don't think uni should be free to those only who gained A levels. For various reasons not everyone stayed on to do A levels. Even now with compulsory stay in until 18 many young people are opting to take none a level routes.

Some great suggestions. Wonder what services will have to be cut to fund them or will people over 80k be asked to pay even more.

Totally agree with free basic sanitary products. I'd fund it by axing free school lunches.

'The same goes for all those who make it look like there's no drinkable water to be found in nature.

I may not have read thirty scientific studies on the matter, but I went on hiking trips and miraculously survived drinking from all those mountain springs that wild animals could theoretically poo in. Didn't even get diarrhea. '

No one's said that . People have been tapping wells and making forms of beer for millennia because they quickly figured out that drinking water from most of nature's sources can make you very sick.

I've been hillwalking, rock climbing and long-distance walking for decades and drank water straight out of a stream, well, not intentionally, because like, that would be pretty stupid, right? But I was foolhardy enough not to wait long enough for my tablets to work. I got giardiasis once and amoebic dysentery another time. That dead animal may be well upstream, you know, somewhere you cannot see it, or its carcass may have been picked clean by carrion eaters, who then went and used the area as a toilet, fish also don't hop out to wee or poo.

'Absolutely more happy for my taxes and NI to be spent on any of these suggestions, and I'm happy to pay more if its needed. I'd rather have better public services than more money in my savings account.'

Plenty of people don't have spare money to put in a savings account, much less pay more tax and NI.

free santitary protection, remember struggling when i wasn't working.
Agree in regards to university.
Free carparking to carers and patients.
Do nurses and doctors have to pay?
Should be free to them too.
I understand the point about paracetmol and otc items, the problem comes in when you have to take the item everyday and can only buy a certain number of boxes!
i always buy things otc that i can, ibs medication, Anti-inflammatories.

No. Everyone should pay for a prescription, with the amount tiered to income.

If that comes in can my husband please have more than a months supply at a time of his medication that he would die if he didn't take? He has Addison's so is entitled to free prescriptions atm (though we're in Wales so it's all free anyway).

I know the one month limit is to stop waste, but come on, he can't not take it and it's a pita to have to order and collect it every month, especially when you have to argue your case because it's thought you're ordering it 'too early'.

^I think a better question would be what is currently free that shouldn't be?
GP appointments would be on my list.^

I'd have probably bankrupted myself last year! I spent seven months waiting for an operation and had to see my GP on multiple occasions to chase up referrals - which she did, she was lovely and I was encouraged to make another appointment if I hadn't heard anything within 'x' amount of time.

Asthma inhalers
Hospital parking

Public toilets - and they should be widely available.
Any kind of prescribed medicine or medical aid, glasses, hearing aids etc. (not including designer frames).

In Scotland we have free hospital parking.

We also have something called the Minor Ailments Scheme. Whereby children, pregnant women and those with chronic health conditions can register with their preferred pharmacy who can then prescribe and dispense free medication for minor ailments - paracetamol, hayfever medication etc. It saves money by reducing the amount of non-essential visits to G.Ps. I thought it was a national scheme but from what G.P's and nurses have mentioned above it would appear not to be.

I assume that those of you actually working are happy to see your tax go up commensurate with the cost of all these free things?

For things I mentioned, absolutely. I hate this idea that tax is automatically bad. If it is done fairly and improves our society, then it's a very good thing.

I also agree that Sanpro should be provided for free - not universally but could be collected in certain places - just as condoms are given out at family planning clinics etc. As a young person I started to bleed and didn't stop for several months (discovered I had endometriosis and a large cyst) - I was a student, working part time in a minimum wage job to cover rent and bills and food and I literally could not afford sanitary towels. I used rolled up toilet paper that i got from the Uni toilets. It also breaks my heart to think that some girls are going without at school because their parents can't afford it. So it should definitely be distributed freely in school when required.

No Capes and others who have raised hospital parking, my local hospital is Bedford, it's almost in the town centre and right next to the Council offices; people would park at the hospital for free and walk to work/to the shops etc. There has to be paid parking or at least a system or there would be virtually no parking for those that need it.

A system whereby you get a ticket and get it validated in the department you are visiting would be a simple solution.

Newjob12345

I think that you should be made to pay only if the GP feels that you have wasted their time (eg gone in to ask for paracetamol). Otherwise if you charged for all visits you would have many more people going to A&E instead.

Dental
Eyecare

Hospital parking
Prescriptions
Tyre air at petrol stations.

*and with that, you take a middle class bung and make it more elitist.....

So only middle class people get decent A levels?

Don't talk shite.*

Your conclusion really doesn't follow from my premise, so I don't think I'm the one "talking shite". The Corbyn manifesto pledge to move tuition fees would cost, according to the IFS, £12 billion. That cost will be borne by taxpayers, but it will have a disproportionate impact on the poorest, who are statistically less likely to access higher education (fact) but will bear the brunt of money being taken away from other parts of the benefits/education system. Don't get me wrong, there is much merit in free university education and I'd absolutely support it in the right economic circumstances. But to claim it's a "people's policy, for the many, not the few" is utterly disingenuous.

But - back to the point - of course it's not only middle class kids who get good grades. But think about it for a minute. Would you see a teen from Eton with three As in exactly the same light as a teen who'd been brought up in care, or who'd been to a failing school in a deprived area? Grades can be, if not bought, but certainly "managed" with money. You'd end up turning the university system into a bigger scale version of the grammar school farce that still exists in certain areas. Yes, of course some very bright kids get to grammar schools. But huge swathes of middle class parents are paying £40 an hour for years for private tutoring to give their kids an edge in the entrance exam. Why? Because it's a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for private. You don't think if you provide a huge financial incentive for middle class people to tutor their teens that that won't happen? And you won't see kids from less financially secure backgrounds disadvantaged because of that? You may say it's shite; I think it's a pretty obvious - and hugely divisive - consequence of the policy you propose.

Passports