To think the NHS medical exemption is not very fair?

[user87382294757]

DH has crohns disease. Needs regular prescriptions and bloods, has an IBD nurse etc.

Advised some conditions can exempt you from prescription charges and checked the list. It says-

You can get all your NHS prescriptions free if you have a valid medical exemption certificate because you have:
• a permanent fistula (for example, caecostomy, colostomy, laryngos-tomy or ileostomy) which needs
continuous surgical dressing or an appliance;
• a form of hypoadrenalism (for example, Addison’s Disease) for which specific substitution therapy is
essential;
• diabetes insipidus and other forms of hypopituitarism;
• diabetes mellitus, except where treatment is by diet alone;
• hypoparathyroidism;
• myasthenia gravis;
• myxoedema (that is, hypothyroidism which needs thyroid hormone replacement);
• epilepsy which needs continuous anticonvulsive therapy;
• a continuing physical disability which means you cannot go out without the help of another person; or
• cancer and are undergoing treatment for:
– cancer;
– the effects of cancer; or,
– the effects of cancer treatment.

Why these conditions and not others? It seems unfair that someone with diabetes type 2 (which is often self induced through diet and lack of exercise) can get these for free and others with other chronic illnesses cannot?

I'm cross that it seems a selective few illness have been given more priority than others for this. AIBU?

@TheTitOfTheIceberg

@mrsbyers

Glad it's not just me who is confused about the rogue 30%!

I wonder if they are all meant to pay, but are not doing so? naughty ...

They will be caught!

Still shocked to see that (apparently) 90% of the UK population get their prescriptions free tho!

I'd be careful broadcasting the whole "type 2 diabetes is self inflicted" ethos.
Does that mean you also think that people who smoke and end up with cancer should be exempt? It's a dangerous thread to pull at.

Just wanted to point out that whilst being overweight and inactive can be contributing factors, they’re not the sole cause of T2 diabetes. It can be hereditary.

I think the point is that 40%of the population pay for prescriptions BUT they are only generating 10%of the total prescription items. 90% of prescriptions are for elderly/chronically ill/children who don't pay anyway.
Agree asthma should be on there. However a standard preventer inhaler costs the NHS around£20 a go so a £9 prescription charge is still heavily subsidised (until the NHS implodes anyway)

@DGRossetti is the NHS itself a reliable enough source for you?

Wales, NI and Scotland all prescriptions are free. Feels really unfair (as does the fees/grants issue for uni)
I don't know about Wales and NI, but the decision to make prescriptions (and tuition fees) free in Scotland was a policy brought in by the Scottish Parliament. You get what you vote for, to some extent.

@DGRossetti Given how incremental health-related change tends to be at a population level, I wouldn't expect the picture to be hugely different five years on.

just makes me doubt the figure from 5 years ago then, rather than believe this one.

If only 10% of prescriptions have to be paid for, then why is there such effort and resource being expended to crack down on "fraud" ? Surely it would make more sense to transfer that money to making the final 10% free ?

Something doesn't add up, if you stop and think.

YABU for the type 2 bashing.

Diabetes affects more than the blood sugar. Diabetics are more prone to infections, for heart disease, get thrush and urine infections more often, are offered medications for blood pressure and cholesterol at a lower threshold than non diabetics (my cholesterol is in the normal range for example but I still get offered statins that I don't take at every checkup), if they get a leg infection need frequent dressing changes. It would simply be impossible to work out what prescription is diabetes related and what is unconnected.

I do think the way forward is either a small charge for all items (including those with exemptions) up to a yearly maximum but then I can see a young unemployed person with an income of just over £50 a week in benefits going without.

The other option is free for all, and given 9% of prescriptions are currently paid for could be the way forward.

It does annoy me - sil has under it over active thyroid. Lifelong conditions like that I agree they can't go back and change now there would be uproar but I don't think she should be getting hay fever meds' on prescription when you can buy a months worth for about £3 now. It's just another waste of scant resource.

It is unfair. There are a lot of chronic illnesses that are potentially fatal that aren't covered. It's odd to single out a few.

What fedup says. The 90% statistic has been around for a long time and seems to be pretty stable. If you read the sources carefully you can see that they all talk about 90% of the prescriptions, not 90% of the population.

Fedup has it right above.

60% of the population are entitled to free prescriptions, be that due to their age, medical condition or financial exemption. However, they make up 90% of all prescriptions that are dispensed. The other 10% of prescriptions are dispensed to people who are liable to pay. Just under half of that 10% have a PPC.

@daisyjgrey -agreed. Also, would raise questions as to whether pregnant women who deliberately chose to get pregnant despite having pre-existing conditions that cause problems should pay.

My husband has MS and has to pay prescription charges ...he could not take his meds and be a massive burden on NHS, physio, it etc ..

Oh I completely forgot maternity exemption too. So the 90% covers a huge spectrum of people and isn't unbelievable at all.

There's also the issue that some more or less everyday items still aren't available OTC. I take a daily antihistamine for allergies which trigger my asthma. However, it's available on prescription only so I have no choice but to get it from my GP. If I were able to buy it OTC like a lot of antihistamines, I'd happily swallow the cost.

Yep, it’s not fair. IMO it would be better to get everyone to pay the pre-payment charge other than children, the elderly and unemployed. I say this as a Type 1 diabetic who gets free prescriptions and who has a lot of extra medical costs people don’t consider - pump equipment not covered by nhs, taxis when blood sugar too low to drive etc, gym membership to keep my cholesterol down and help me absorb insulin better.

But YABU to take the daily mail attitude towards Type 2 diabetics. They are sick too and the biggest component in whether someone develops the condition is genetic.
And if you know someone who has it and won’t change their diet/lifestyle, their life expectancy will be dramatically shorter with a whole host of horrible things coming their way. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

My understanding is that a pharmacist in NI can issue prescriptions written by English gps for free. Only worth the cheap easyJet flight if you had a lot in one go though!

Horrible to attack others with illnesses. Spend time on an American forum for people with the conditions and you will become very grateful that you have all of your meds for £10 a month with a PPC. Energy and fight needs to go into preserving this, not attacking others.

As a type ii diabetic I totally agree. I can afford my prescriptions and I would be happy to pay for them.

@user87382294757 you’re a twat.
These threads are always hating on the T2 diabetics and their ‘bad lifestyle’
I was diagnosed at 19, was in sports teams etc.
Was diagnosed as insulin resistant, with PCOS to boot. For me it’s fucking genetic. Judgy cow.

With regards to the prescription charge, scrap it. Save the admin fees, the paperwork, and the money treating people in a&e as an emergency that could be prevented, I.e, asthmatics.
And take paracetamol and the like off the acute prescribable list

Another thread of illness top trumps.

You're all welcome to my thyroid which gets me free meds, I've spent much of the last ten years asleep thanks to a very unstable thyroid that kicked off a whole chain of events and autoimmune diseases.

Anyone with a healthy thyroid they'd like to swap with me then I'm more than happy to and I'll start paying for prescriptions and you can have them free.

I now pay for a year long certificate as I am asthmatic but in the past wheb yoinger would go without inhalers for a long time as it was too expensive and in actual fact no GP or pharmacist ever told me about the prepayment option, I literally found out from a random conversation with someone!

@ EleanorO - Couldn't agree more with your post. I am MODY type diabetic (a rarer type) But am commonly mistaken for type and it infuriates me to hear people assume Diabetes is caused by Diet or lack of exercise - this isn't always the case and I resent the assumption. Mine is genetic too, and my mother has had a kidney transplant, eye issues and a toe amputation as a result, and I spent some time in ICU after suffering Ketoacidosis a few years ago. Despite being fit, and otherwise healthy.

That being said, I do find it unfair that for my instance my friend who had to have a kidney transplant years ago due to his failing without any reason, and now has to take various medications for the rest of his life has to pay for something he didn't inflict on himself. Not sure how they made the criteria. I do think though as mentioned previously that the additional cost to the NHS would prove even more ruinous and given it's current state is not likely to change.

SO you are not being unreasonable in saying it's unfair that some conditions warrant it over others, but I dislike the picking on Diabetes Type 2- it isn't always caused by the individuals diet and exercise (or lack of)

Thanks Fedup, that makes sense.

If only 10% of prescriptions have to be paid for, then why is there such effort and resource being expended to crack down on "fraud" ? Surely it would make more sense to transfer that money to making the final 10% free ?

Something doesn't add up, if you stop and think.

For the same reason there are only 300 people in HMRC tasked with chasing down £4.4bn of tax fraud while 3250 DWP staff are going after £1.2bn in benefit fraud? Tory ideology is what doesn't add up.

"I would agree that it's unfair, and I'm one of the people benefitting from it - all my prescriptions are free because of hypothyroidism. Antibiotics for a toenail infection? Free. Daft, isn't it."
Hypothyroidism affects every aspect of your body though - the rate at which everything in your body functions - metabolism, heart rate, rate at which cells reproduce, rate at which you heal. It is also generally a lifelong condition.

I received a good ticking off by an Endocrinologist recently for leaving off my tablet until the day after my blood tests (rather than just taking after bloods were taken). She said I obviously didn't realise the seriousness of hypothyroidism.