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

[BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot]

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?

You can pay monthly for a prepayment certificate. I do and it saves me about £40 per month in prescription charges. I am also a poorly controlled asthmatic so I sympathise with you, its miserable.

As others have pointed out, the medical exemptions list is a historic list set out for chronic treatable conditions back in 1968. Obviously things have changed a great deal since but the list has never been revised to reflect this.

There’s nothing logical about this list being used today. A sensible move to be to revise it to either
a) exclude everything from the medical exemptions list or
b) include every single chronic lifelong condition that is medication-managed (I suspect this is financially unviable) or
c) decide what should be on the list purely based on the lifetime cost to the NHS - this would obviously mean ‘lifestyle’ illnesses like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, COPD etc climb to the top of the list

I get my exemption card for epilepsy - definitely not lifestyle induced! I have no idea at all why some conditions that probably should be exempt from prescription charges aren't though.

balloon and a lot of people don't just grow out of it. I'll have athsma for life i imagine. I am no better than I ever was. But it's I'd love to pay a tenner a month to keep myself alive because some people grow out of it.

I wonder if there's an uncomfortable elephant in the room.

Many of those with lifestyle induced T2 diabetes wouldn't be able to pay for their prescriptions.

OK I’m a UK citizen vulnerable live in a country where there’s no such thing as a free prescription and certainly not prescription fees ala UK, I.e 1 cost per med, we pay the cost of the meds. 2nd, the ignorant person who called type 2 diabetes ‘lifestyle induced’ should feel ashamed. Recently nursed the fittest lady ever who’s had gestational diabetes that lead to type 2, mid 40’s, didn’t smoke, drink, was a very healthy weight, great diet, had faced double leg amputation and was on full renal dialysis awaiting transplant, she felt bitter about her situation and quite frankly I didn’t blame her, very very unlucky and nothing she could ever had done would have changed her situation, however all you experts on here clearly know better 😡😡😡

The other thing to remember is that just giving diabetics free insulin isn't the only thing they may need as a result of their condition. They have a low immune system which means antibiotics might be needed more often. Blood sugars become harder to control while ill too. It's such a wide ranging condition with wide ranging side effects that it'd be difficult to 'limit' them to only insulin.
Obviously this is just an example!

All scripts cost the same regardless of cost of medicine because overall it helps balance out. The 'profit' (though there isn't any really as the cost to the nhs of dispensing is more than just the pills) helps outweigh the loss on the pricier drugs.

You're focussing on the wrong thing op in your determination to make it 'us and them'. What other 'lifestyle' induced illnesses are you thinking of?

I am just grateful that a pre-payment card is £10.40 a month which is ridiculously cheap. Yes, some medications work out less than the NHS charge, but some are much much more.

But a prepayment certificate is about £100 for a year which is surely not too much for most people? Agree though it is unfair that some are free and some are not.

Pre payment isn't expensive no but why should some people get that free and others shouldnt? (When they're both life long conditions!)

The thing is, most prescription medicines cost significantly more than the prescription fee anyway, so we're still better off.

One of my meds would cost me £160 every three months if I bought it from an online pharmacy, but instead it costs me £8.60 or whatever the NHS prescription fee is.

I'd rather pay £35 a year for meds than £650 a year. Thank goodness for the NHS!

The other ridiculous thing is that some medicines like antibiotics cost pennies and other medicines cost many pounds and yet the cost is always £8.60 Would you prefer the alternative, where someone unfortunate enough to acquire an "expensive" illness pays a huge amount (or maybe finds they can't afford the prescription)?

Are you not entitled to free prescriptions if you don't earn?

It’s based on household income and has to be REALLY low!

Yeas ago, DH was out of work and although I was working we had less than £100 per month after we’d paid our mortgage (late 80s interest had shot up) but mortgage payments were considered a “luxury” expenditure when I applied for free prescriptions.

DD is a 20 year old student with NO income but has to pay for prescriptions because of DHs income....even if we don’t want to support her (which we do obviously 🙄).

Maybe the issue is that gone are the days when it’s FREE, the NHS never anticipated the demand it faces today, perhaps it’s noe time that people pay a realistic contribution towards their medications?? I pay $75 to see my GP, I can generally get in the day ai request and I get back $40 direct into my bank account the same day from the government, it’s worth every single cent and I don’t rock up with a cold, when I see my GP I know I really need to see them and I’m willing to pay.

I think the system should be reviewed and I say that as someone with an exemption card due to hypothyroidism.

I’d happily pay for all other prescriptions unrelated to hypothyroidism, however, I appreciate that it’s very difficult to draw a line between related/unrelated conditions for some long term or chronic illnesses

I have T2 am 5ft8 and was diagnosed after falling from 10st even to just over 8st 2 years ago (am up to just under 10st again) I was seriously ill and had to be admitted to hospital and put on an insulin drip.

They thought it was adult onset T1 until tests came back negative, I've only been overweight on bmi during pregnancy and had gestational DB which was controlled very easily with diet but since being diagnosed my intolerance for most carbs has increased very quickly.

I need a small amount of insulin now because I eat mainly high fat and protein with 90% salad vegetables, however I do occasionally eat other higher carb veggies and need a small amount of insulin to help keep my B1c at good levels.

I could claim it for free but since my maternity certification expired I got the prescription certificate £109 per year instead.

I don't begrudge other T2 free prescriptions though, they can end up with serious complications which end up costing the NHS more.

I would rather advocate for other lifelong medications to be added to the list.

I was extremely upset when diagnosed because I was ignorant in believing only fat and unhealthy people got T2 but a diabetic consultant explained to me that there has been a steady increase of people diagnosed T2 who do not tick the lifestyle induced boxes.

There is also a lot of research pointing to a variety of sub sets of diabetes, there's still a lot they don't know.

Perhaps England should abolish prescription frees and join Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales in having free prescriptions for all!?

Oh wait, if England is already subsidising free prescriptions for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, then we can't afford to!

I'm not bitter or jealous as all

England is not subsidising free prescriptions for the other nations. They've just decided to make prescriptions free under the budget they have.

Would you like to swap the good bits of the English NHS for their bad bits or is it only the good bits they have that you want sirlee?

I agree the list of free exemptions need reviewing or probably scrapping altogether, perhaps we should just all pay for prescriptions yes some drugs only cost a few pence but some cost hundreds it balances out for the people who don't or can pay. My DM didn't understand why she didn't pay come 60 as she still worked and could afford to pay for prescriprptions.

I say all this as an NHS nurse but also my DH has a life long condition managed by multiple drugs per month, he has a pre pay certificate, if he didn't take his drugs he would need treatment and surgery which would cost the NHS thousands and no it's not life style induced.

I think we should all pay our way towards the NHS before we loose it, what I see at work on a daily basis is scary, people demand so much and expect to pay so little, it is so abused and the cost is huge. We are developing life changing drugs and tests which means people are living longer and surviving from things which before would have caused death, however our contribution into this amazing system has not increased and people seem incredulous they should pay for it.

It's a political hot potato that's under funded very much loved but very much abused.

some diagnosis of type 2 diabetes are hereditary or due to genes (mody).
In some cases type 2 diabetes are secondary to pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, chemotherapy or can even be steroid induced ie in patients with asthma or COPD. These types are now being classed in some areas as type 3

I have an NHS exemption card for prescription costs due to having an underactive thyroid but I do also think it's disgusting that treatments for asthma are still having to be paid for. Asthma interferes with the most basic thing needed in life, being able to breathe!

YANBU at all OP. There is no obvious logic nor rhyme nor reason to it. Thanks to the posters who have explained.
It surely is time to have another look though.

I agree OP. I have asthma but can't afford the prescription charges so it isn't managed well anymore.