AIBU - Should people 60+ be means tested & pay for prescriptions

[monopoly5]

Considering the NHS is so stretched as are lots of other public services should free prescriptions for the over 60s be means tested?

I agree that the NHS is mismanaged but there is still no money. The tax paying population is shrinking & wealth is increasingly held by the older generations.

Yes there is the argument that people have paid their taxes so are entitled but I don’t believe a 20 year old of today will have any state pension/NHS available to them.

In an ideal world the 1% would be taxed more but can’t see that happening. Don’t we all need to chip in?

Means testing will not be fair unless it includes assets. It would be wrong to charge an elderly person with a small private pension on top of state pension living in a rented home while a pensioner with just the state pension could live in a multi-million pound home and pay nothing. It is far too complicated.

I think the Australian system is fairer overall

I think everyone should pay for prescriptions and bus travel tbh... it's not like it becomes free when they retire.

Taxes go on the nhs so the functioning and running of hospitals which they will likely use more as they get older anyway.

And everyone should have private pensions.

But inheritance tax should be wiped out.

Many of you are talking about false economies.

If you introduce a fee for appointments, you will prevent those who can't afford it from seeking help early - they'll wait until they literally must go, by which point they will be far more expensive to treat, far more likely to need longterm medication, hospital stays and other forms of treatment which could be avoided. The same is true of prescriptions.

I would say we need to pay more into the NHS but under this government it would be pointless - they won't ring fence funds, and their MO is literally to starve the NHS of funds so there's less resistance to carving it up and selling it off.

Make everyone (actually everyone, not just those on PAYE) pay the taxes they owe. Close tax loopholes. Have a government who'll actually spend the money on improving the NHS.

If you want to see what happens when private industry gets too involved in healthcare, and when people have to pay according to the drugs they take, check out the Netflix Dirty Money episode on Valeant pharmaceuticals. We should all be fighting to keep the NHS free at the point of access and figuring out how to fund it, and how to ensure the government isn't deliberately sabotaging it.

The problem is if by assets you mean the home you live in, an elderly person is not going to sell their home so they can afford prescription charges. Many elderly people are asset rich and cash poor.

And everyone should have private pensions

Though this is from 2004, the effects are still with us:
www.theguardian.com/money/2004/jul/10/pensions.jobsandmoney

Anyone remember the Mirror pensions when Cap''n Bob went overboard?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell

This is why private pensions are shit.

Yes private pensions are a gamble.