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?

Haven't read the whole thread but, from experience of taking back £2,000 of expensive medication given to my FIL (more than 30 doses per day of different things), an improvement on how to select only those items on a repeat prescription that are actually needed would help to reduce the cost substantially.

Only about 10% of prescriptions are paid for in England. They should be means tested. Not sure why other countries are able to do this but according to some people it’s apparently not worth it/ so difficult to do in England

You won't be moaning when you turn 60 and get free prescriptions.
And don't think that you won't need medication as you get older, things change with age.

Just you wait til you’re a pensioner, you sound a delight!

An added benefit will be that some pensioners will be too tight-fisted or too scared of poverty to pay. They'll die early, which will: save even more money on NHS treatments and pensions; relieve pressure on GPs and other public services; reduce traffic on the roads as family no longer have to visit the old dears; free up housing stock; etc. There'll be so much money sloshing around that I'm sure the government will give you a rebate. 🤣

Tests to see if they are taking methadone only and not heroin too would cost more than the free prescriptions. The point of methadone is that reduces and sometimes stops heroin use. That's not only for the benefit of the addicts themselves but it also reduces criminal behaviour to support their habit.

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

US ventolin average cost is $$$ prescription only - Spain - they are over the counter and €4 -

I agree only 10% of people pay for prescriptions and things like ventolin should be over the counter

perfect example are those with say diabetics and get free meds - then they go to the doctors for everything!! Costs more in the long run, my gran used to get prescription pain killers - and dished them out - all free - so she could’ve brought them and not wasted GPs time.

You'd be paying £11 a month if you did a bit of research and did the prepayment certificate so you jog on.

Don't worry: round here bus passes have been in line with retirement age for years. So when the government screwed me over at age 60 & made me wait another 6 years, the bus company didn't give me a free bus pass either. So that's all good.

What bothers me about the argument that pensioners could buy the pre-payment certificate instead of getting free prescriptions is that once everyone's on it, the government would view it as a form of taxation, increase the cost of the certificate & leave people unable to afford it, just as the OP claims to be unable to afford a single prescription charge each month. And once free prescriptions are lost, they won't come back.

How does all this fit into the rush to privatise the NHS? Is that why this issue is being raised?

I have diabetes and rarely go to the gp. I wouldn’t dream of having paracetamol and the like on prescription.

This and I'm not sure how someone in a long (or even longish) queue could monitor what cars everyone got into. Does no one live near the doctors so they walk? They can't all have been parked just in front of the surgery.

It's paid monthly.

I don't think they will give it to you anyway, my doctor won't if it is something OTC, you just get advised to buy it.

And all these people getting into their expensive cars - were the prescriptions for their own medication, or were they collecting them for a frail elderly relative or neighbour?

@tailinthejam Thats a very good point. My Dad’s prescriptions are usually picked up by a volunteer who does it for several people in the village with limited mobility. I think she’s quite well-off so probably drives a nice car.

Does it make things "shitter for others" for wealthy people to have to pay for their own stuff? You could use this argument to say that wealthy people shouldn't pay more tax either, because it's "shitter" for them 🙄

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

That's not particularly unusual, I've paid NI since 17 & my retirement age is 68 so potentially 51 yrs or contributions.

One pharmacy in town is by a massive car park, the boots pharmacy is in the middle of a pedestrian area, the other pharmacy is in a supermarket right by the front with a massive car park...the last local pharmacy is small but in a village next to a car park...so at least 3 you can see what car someone gets into...and I know 2 old white men who drive jaguars and one is 73 and the other 61 so not exactly young and that's fact.

Yes they should pay.

So maybe it would have been better to start a thread about why can't England do what Wales and Scotland do and let everyone have free prescriptions rather than one about taking it away from some. I wonder how much it actually costs to run the current system where 10% pay compared to what it would cost to follow Wales and Scotland.

Yes, all old people have huge expensive cars, chug their meds like sweets and use tenners for toilet paper.

If they made those people pay, I doubt you’d see any benefits for yourself. They’d just reduce funding for the nhs.

They should improve the nhs, increase pay for staff, provide free prescriptions, bring back an ambulance service and pay for it by increasing taxes for richer people. But they won’t do that because they’re systematically dismantling the nhs.

If people vote for a party that isn’t interested in providing public services then they shouldn’t be surprised when there aren’t any public services.

As I’ve said, I was in the car park with the rest of them. I could say I was faster at walking and getting in my car than the rest of them but then that really would be ageist. The doctors surgery is in one village (not mine) and services at least 4 other villages so I wouldn’t be surprised that everyone was driving, I couldn’t have walked there.

Just a minute!

I've looked up the current pre payment charges - see attached screenshot.

It says you save money if you need more than 11 items in 12 months. £111.60 for 12 months, divided by 12 is £9.30. So if you have one prescription a month (at £9.65), it's cheaper to buy a certificate - not by much admittedly, but OP said:

'I’m only one one medication so it would be more expensive, but might help others!'

OP appears to be wrong about that & could save him/herself 35p x 12 = £4.20 a year. Or have I misunderstood something?

Incidentally, I don’t think you need to be a medical professional to know how to use paracetamol and ibuprofen🤣

Uh huh OK.....their choice to take it in the first place but hey you've got your opinion and I have mine. I see it constantly on both heroin and methadone, breaking into houses, stealing from shops, again I'm not saying all.

Very true, I collect my med (levothyroxine for underactive thyroid which was free before I was 60) and several items for my disabled husband. Probably looks like me an active healthy looking 70 year old is taking lots of med when I'm not. I still work, have since I was 15, so I think I'm entitled to my car.