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AIBU?

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Original poster

To not understand why some life saving medications are free and others aren't

247 replies

BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot · 02/04/2018 16:11

Why on earth are inhalers and asthma medications not yet free on prescription but type 2 diabetics (lifestyle induced) get all of their medications for free?

This has been slowly getting to me as the years have gone on and I have a teen with asthma who, no matter how well controlled it is in the year, always ends up on steroids multiple times in the winter. I know they don't have to pay now but this is likely to be an issue as an adult for them and they will then have to pay, why? Why can type 2 diabetics not just get their diabetes medications free but ALL their medications but asthmatics can't even get essential life saving medications free?

AIBU to feel the rage on this?

OP posts:
nordicflamingo · 05/04/2018 23:47

YourWanMajella

Take a loOk at any of the many studies into the financial cost of cancer. It causes problems with work, finances and actually a prepayment certificate could have been too expensive for someone who is struggling but not entitled to benefits.

YourWanMajella · 05/04/2018 23:49

Take at a look at them for the rest of us, who have to actually pay the cost of our meds and not a tiny cost of 10 pounds a month, which is a tiny fraction of the actual cost.

nordicflamingo · 05/04/2018 23:53

Who are the rest of us? If you’re in the U.K. you can buy a prepayment certificate?

YourWanMajella · 05/04/2018 23:55

the rest of us not in the uk, it is patently obvious from my comment Hmm

nordicflamingo · 05/04/2018 23:58

Different countries have different systems, there are pros and cons to it all.

Perhaps prescriptions are more expensive elsewhere, but that doesn’t make the situation for people here who can’t afford them any better.

VikingVolva · 06/04/2018 08:06

t's the UK, nobody has to buy their medications. They pay a script charge and there are various ways to keep that very low. Why are people pretending that anyone is being bankrupted or is unable to buy essential medications?

I take it you weren't involved in the actual campaign for getting cancer included on the list? Nor have ever used MacMillan money services, either before or after the change to prescription charges for cancer patients?

it took years of campaigning - involving real case studies and repeated surveys of financial impact. Which parts of that evidence do you think were wrong?

Dungeondragon15 · 06/04/2018 10:01

it took years of campaigning - involving real case studies and repeated surveys of financial impact. Which parts of that evidence do you think were wrong?

To be fair, they could probably run campaigns with case studies on the financial impact of other disease too. I don't think cancer would be worse in that regard compared with chronic disabling conditions that last for a lifetime. I think it likely that cancer got included because it wouldn't have that much of a financial impact anyway- people usually need treatment for relatively short periods of time and sleeping pills, pain killers etc aren't a high cost to the NHS. By charging for prescriptions the NHS would be making a profit.

nordicflamingo · 06/04/2018 11:31

Dungeon - look up the cost of oral chemo, gcsfs, dalteparin etc. Cancer treatment costs a lot and if you can’t afgord to pay upfront for cert you can end up buying lots and lots of prescriptions.

YourWanMajella · 06/04/2018 11:38

Which parts of that evidence do you think were wrong?

I didn't say any of it was wrong. I'm saying that NOW nobody pays in the UK for their medications. Even then you were still only talking about prescription charges.

None of you have ever had to pay 90 quid for a single medication for your child and then wonder how you are also going to feed them for the next week. I have. So stop bleating about how awful it is that you have to pay a few quid prescription charge instead of getting it for free.

Dungeondragon15 · 06/04/2018 11:43

Dungeon - look up the cost of oral chemo, gcsfs, dalteparin etc. Cancer treatment costs a lot and if you can’t afgord to pay upfront for cert you can end up buying lots and lots of prescriptions.

I don't need to "look up the cost" thanks. The medicines prescribed in primary care for isn't usually expensive to the NHS and as it is only for a relatively short period of they would have worked out that it wasn't going to cost much to stop charging for cancer. The really expensive treatment is usually prescribed by secondary care and there wouldn't be a prescription charge for that anyway. I don't have a problem with not charging for cancer (or any other disease) but I don't agree that it is more necessary for those patients to be exempt vs. people with serious chronic diseases many of who also can't work and suffer a lifetime of severe financial difficult because of it.

Kazzyhoward · 06/04/2018 11:51

Take a loOk at any of the many studies into the financial cost of cancer. It causes problems with work, finances and actually a prepayment certificate could have been too expensive for someone who is struggling but not entitled to benefits.

You can get a medical exemption certificate once you have a cancer diagnosis, so prescriptions will be free. Even without the exemption, you could get an annual prepayment certificate limiting the monthly cost to just a tenner or so for however many items you needed.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 06/04/2018 12:05

YourWan someone just over the threshold for benefits who has asthma still may not be able to afford a month's inhalers with a prepayment certificate. My XH is one of those people.

RepealMay25th · 06/04/2018 12:08

It's a tenner at most. Anyone can afford a tenner a month for essential meds. don't come that.

nordicflamingo · 06/04/2018 12:38

Kazzy, I’m aware it’s now exempt but it was not previously which is what we were discussing.

Dungeon, you might want to check as you’re talking nonsense. The cost to the nhs for the day to day drugs for cancer treatments can still be high. I needed a new prescription for injections every 5 days because they were so expensive and couldn’t be wasted. I was on 7 or 8 medications at one point which were on prescription.

It’s £30 or £104 upfront for a prepayment, while that’s not a lot a month it can be out of reach to save that to pay upfront.

nordicflamingo · 06/04/2018 12:39

By the by, I do think prescription charges down south are excessive and think changes need to be made.

LimonViola · 06/04/2018 12:42

Nordic, it's £10.40 per month and you don't have to pay a higher starting fee or anything. Just sign up, choose the date you want to be covered from and off you go. It's brilliant. I get eight prescriptions per month so this saves me £54 every month.

nordicflamingo · 06/04/2018 12:44

Just saw you can d/d now, it used to be quarterly or annually in Scotland before charges were abolished.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 06/04/2018 13:21

No, Repeal, not anyone can afford a tenner a month. Not when they're just over the threshold for WTC and they suddenly lose HB, CTB and free prescriptions. He's only saving £5 a month. He's lost more than that in benefits. Much, much more.

Dungeondragon15 · 06/04/2018 14:01

Dungeon, you might want to check as you’re talking nonsense. The cost to the nhs for the day to day drugs for cancer treatments can still be high. I needed a new prescription for injections every 5 days because they were so expensive and couldn’t be wasted.

Were the expensive injections prescribed by your GP or by the hospital? I don't know about your drugs but I do know that many cancer treatments are prescribed by secondary care and often delivered by home care companies which means that there wouldn't be a prescription charge anyway.

It’s £30 or £104 upfront for a prepayment, while that’s not a lot a month it can be out of reach to save that to pay upfront.

I wasn't referring to the cost for you. I was referring to the cost to the NHS. Considering that people are treated for cancer for a relatively short time, they would have received that much in prescription charges anyway so there wasn't a huge cost to making it free. The cost of making prescriptions free for those who need treatment for a lifetime is much higher.,

Dungeondragon15 · 06/04/2018 14:02

would have received that wouldn't have received

nordicflamingo · 06/04/2018 15:04

I still receive a heck of a lot of medication some 8 years later - cancer can often be treated but cause expensive long term conditions.
I was given short term prescriptions from acute services which were then followed up by ongoing Prescriptions from the GP. I’ve never had drugs delivered straight to my home cutting out the GP - is this perhaps an English thing?

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou · 08/04/2018 20:02

Etymology23
BuggerOff - are you sure it’s her out-of-term address she should she using though? I always used my term time address, and I don’t think I was wrong to do that, but all my bank statements and things went there so I didn’t feel like it was giving the wrong address, especially as I was there 24 weeks per year for term, plus usually another 4-6 outside term, so over half the year. There is a helpline telephone that may be able to give you a more accurate answer though.

She checked, we checked.... as she lives part of the year here we are financially responsible for her......

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