To think blanket free prescriptions for over 60s NEED to end?

[Idratherbepaddleboarding]

I know this will be controversial but I popped to the doctors in my lunch break to collect my prescription and joined a longish queue. Everyone in front of me was over 60 and collecting huge bags of medications and I was the only one paying for any of it.

I don’t dispute that I should have to pay but often I can’t afford it which has led to me having to miss days of my medication, leaving me feeling very emotional and at times suicidal (medication is for depression). Perhaps if everyone who has over a certain income had to pay, they’d be able to lower the prescription charge for everyone or be able to afford the pay rises they say they can’t afford for nurses and junior doctors.

The killer was that every single one of the people in front of me got back into massive, brand new SUVs, one couple into a Range Rover and another into a Jaguar. If they can afford to own (and run!) cars like that, paying for a prescription would be a drop in the ocean for them. AIBU to think that free prescriptions should be limited to those in pension credit just like Universal Credit?

When DH’s grandad died, his mum and auntie shared out his collection of prescription paracetamol and ibuprofen (I know they should be returned to the pharmacy but they’d only have been destroyed and both are ex nurses so I guess they know what they’re doing). I’m not joking, there were boxes and boxes of the stuff, we didn’t buy painkillers for years and these will have cost the NHS a lot more than they would from the supermarket and weren’t even taken by the person that they were intended for! Surely paracetamol and ibuprofen should not be available on the NHS at all?

I really don’t want to bash the over 60s and it wouldn’t be a vote winner for politicians but surely we can’t afford to keep free prescriptions for those that can afford them?

Why just target the over 60s?

what about high-earners - with your argument, why should their DC get free prescriptions when the parents can afford to pay for them? (Note: I do NOT advocate this)

and the answer is quite simple - the NHS is supposed to be cradle to grave, free at the pint of need. Anyone who needs a prescription gets one, without having to “prove” their income status. And this is what happens in Wales and Scotland.

I agree that I would rather get rid of free travel in London for kids and over sixties. No one else in England gets this.

I live in Scotland and do not agree with free bus travel for pensioners or free baby boxes for all.

However, free prescriptions for all is something I do agree with.

People in the UK should not have to choose between heating their homes/putting food on the table/paying for much needed medication.

I have 12 different prescription medications a month, if when I reach pension age I had to pay for them I wouldn't be able to afford them, would end up in hospital & cost the NHS a lot more money & a hospital bed.

This is not a new debate. There has always been the argument that everyone should pay a prescription charge but that is to reduce waste rather than to penalise anyone. If it wasn't for waste, I don't think anyone should pay. Probably 50 pence per item would be enough.

Before Scotland had free prescriptions I had to undergo a total thyroidectomy. Before then I paid for my prescription but since being on Thyroxine....all medication on my prescription was free.
My poor mother who was coeliac and at that time there was not the gluten free range that we now have in supermarkets. She had to order a lot of it on prescription and she had to pay.....for a condition that wasn't her doing yet junkies got free methadone?

I think it should be a means tested service but junkies should pay for methadone.

It would only be £111.60 for 12 months.

@Idratherbepaddleboarding I haven't read all of this but I totally agree with you. DH and I are over 60. We still work full-time and earn three times more than our dc in their 20s.

The only caveat is that DH started work aged 23 and I started at 20 so between us we have made about 80 years of tax and ni contributions.

I disagree I feel free healthcare and prescriptions should be a priority. If we don’t we’ll end up like the US where people are making decisions about whether to have medication for eg diabetes/asthma things that could deteriorate quickly and cost more in the long term.

If they had to pay, why would they buy methadone rather than heroin?

They're still on heroin too. It happens frequently

People are having to make those decisions though!

YANBU. I had no idea this was the case.

I’d happily pay say £1 per prescription item.

It's just an issue with blanket policies. Old people generally need more medication and often will have very low incomes with now way to increase it (becuase they can't work), so I can see the logic in the policy. However that of course is not the same for everyone.

My FIL constantly tells us how well off they are (finaly salary pension + army pension + state pension and no mortgage), and how much they are getting for free because they are pensioners. I have to admit it's starting to grate. Especially when he made a joke how his pnesion was going up by the same amount our tax was increasing vs last year and that we may as well pay him directly 🙄He also goes through bags of meidcation (much to do with lifestyle) and drives a German SUV. Anyways, the purpose of that tangent is just to illustrate that some pensioners really don't need it and that is annoying, but I suspect in reality more do than don't and it's probably much more expensive to do the admin of keeping track of who is eligible than just paying it for everyone.

yabvu. I have paid until 60 unlike those in Scotland Wales or NI. Or those scamming benefits. I am not paying anymore

Not all of them. That's the whole point of methadone.

All adults should pay but a lower amount with a prepayment option to cap the maximum cost. Otherwise unfortunately people start stockpiling and wasting as it’s ‘free’. 60 makes no sense as it doesn’t match the retirement age anymore

@RosesAndHellebores My DP who is 62 is on just over minimum wage and would have to pay.

I think free prescriptions should be the same as retirement age rather than 60 . I disagree with them being means tested .

So I would still have to pay? I had a prepayment up until I was 60 and couldn’t afford that some months!

@BungleandGeorge This is rubbish. People have explainec time and time again why when people die there can be a lot of medication in the house. My father was on end of life care and on loads of medication. A months supply filled two carrier bags. I knew when I took it to the pharmacy after he died some people would think there had been stockpiling.

I'm on an exemption because I have hashimotos. Just glad I don't pay full price and we have the NHS as I'm on

AD
Antihistamines x 4 (I buy these)
Dihydrocodeine
Levothyroxine
1 injection done every 14 days which is £40 if not prescription
2 injections monthly which would be £3000 for a 6 month course

Never said all of them. Should be frequent tests to ensure they're still not using heroin. But if it sticks in my throat that they got free treatment over my poor mum then that's my business.

Pre payment! It will work out cheaper