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?

Nothing like a sweeping generalisation.

I am 65 and would happily pay.
Haven't been to a gp in 4 years though.
However if no-one pays in Scotland and Wales then surely better to stop charging anyone in England.

I agree, OP. This is just another ridiculous example of people thinking "the government" owes them something. An abdication of personal responsibility.

Its not earned money my father is on a final salary pension he's retiring next year and will have 50k per year and its protected if he lives 30 years that's a 1.5 million pension pot he can give it to his widow. If he's on a £50k pension then he's probably earning £100k, which is hardly typical. I'm not sure where your £1.5 million pension pot for his widow comes from - £1.5 million is what you get if you multiply 30 by £50k, but that would imply he saved all his pension and lived on .. what? State pension only?

Boxes of unopened sealed meds should be returned when someone dies etc. It's madness I wonder how happy people would be to receive prescriptions not guaranteed to have been kept at the right temperature and whose efficacy was questionable? Or walking aids which may have been subject to stress and with a risk of sudden failure?

30 years ago I was a nurse giving vaccines to under 5's.
Unopened vaccines on expiry date were sent to be given to dc in poorer countries.
I doubt it happens now.
It always struck me as a conundrum giving a dc something we wouldn't give to our own dc and yet could be life saving.

Even if the medicines are still sealed you don't know what conditions they have been kept in. There's no way they will reissue them to other patients when they are returned. They get destroyed.

Women over 60 have had free prescriptions for the last 49 years.

Are free education and health care also examples of people thinking the government owes them something?

What bugs me are that pharmacies won't "take back" to re-issue drugs they've only just handed to you - they always say they'll take them but they'll be destroyed, which is nonsensical when they've been in their custody throughout and hadn't even left the counter!

My OH has cancer and gets a carrier bag full every month - we have no control, it's automatically issued by the oncology dept. It contains drugs he never uses such as anti-diarrhoea, anti-sickness, etc. Oncology won't take them off repeat as "it's a standard prescription" (basically too lazy to change it!). Both the cancer dept nurses and pharmacist just pass them off as being "low value" hence why they don't care. But a few million workers "wasting" small amounts of money daily soon adds up to billions over a year!

Yes, it's something that I ponder about too. For example, seems a no-brainer that supermarket unsold food should go to people who need it - but what about things after their "best before" date?

But a few million workers "wasting" small amounts of money daily soon adds up to billions over a year! But so does a few million workers wasting small amounts of time avoiding the waste of small amounts of money.

It is totally unfair that if you live in England you have to pay for prescriptions when the rest of the UK have them free

And that's another costly travesty. Our neighbours have a BMW and a Merc for their own cars, and use their DLA money for a "fun" motability car, which is currently a bright yellow Mini. They openly admit they don't need the car and don't need the money, but they get a "fun" car "because they can

The higher level motability payment is difficult to get, in order to qualify your neighbours must have some serious issues going on. And then they can choose to have cash in the bank OR pay the £265 a month to a new car. It's not something just given out to anyone.

It’s not a race to the bottom. The country could properly fund the NHS, including universal free prescriptions if the will was there.
The government have made a political decisions not to do so and spend/waste the money elsewhere and offer perks to their mates. It benefits them that we look at ‘others’ (in this case the older generation) and believe them to be the problem rather than addressing the political mismanagement/corruption.

No, it won't trickle down. In fact, we're seeing the exact opposite, with an increasing proportion of wealth being concentrated into the top few percent (the top 1% in the UK own 24% of all wealth today). Sure, that wealth will pass on to the children of the wealthy, but it will never find its way into the hands of the poor without intervention.

The resentment for boomers stems from a variety of reasons (as well as for Xers as there's little distinction between the two in the eyes youth, hell, even early millennials are grouped into this now).

Before I start I want to make it clear that this is not personal attack on individuals, nor am I implying every boomer/xer had a easy, care free life. This is simply detailing the reasons I hear being voiced.

For some it's becuase that generation took a period of unprecedented peace, stability, growth and prosperity and chose to pursue a system that exploits the many for the benefit of a few rather than one that created a fairer and more equal world.

For some it's because that generation are the ones who oversaw the population explosion, began the extreme overconsumption of natural resources, decimated biodiversity and destroyed the environment (this is where Xers get brought in becuase they continued and exacerbated the situation).

For some it's because of the refusal of boomers/xers (as a generation) to accept that they made mistakes, that things aren't working, and that things need to change. This is compounded by the fact that it is largely the boomer and Xer generation who are in postions of power (senior management, government, etc) and they are often seen to acting as barriers to change by not implementing policies/changes that younger generations want too see.

Finally, for some it's because of how out of touch they appear to be about the realities and pressures of modern life and of life as a young person. That's largely down to the media but there's certainly an element of truth in to (if you want a house just stop buying Starbucks type thing).

I think things are so pronounced now because we are on the cusp of a societal shift or a societal collapse. Capitalism has advanced the human race immeasurable in the last 200 years or so but it has reached (I'd argue it exceeded) the limits of its current form and we will have to change willingly or not.

Boomers, Xers, and probably millennials represents the society of days past, while Gen Z and Gen Alpha will very likely be the lost generations of the transition period (unless we get out act together very quickly in which case they would be the first of a new age), hence the resentment.

Almost all FS schemes give a "half" pension to widows etc, not a full pension and some will be at the pension funds discretion.

Also, it will probably be career avg or at best 2/3rds of final salary or is he an MP?

Has anyone arguing for more freebies for the older generation actually looked at the statistics of where the wealth lies? Or do you just not care?

I don't really understand how a conversation about those over the age of 60 simply cannot be had. So many of you dropping snidey comments - for what?

Admin costs aside - what are the actual objections to it being means tested for all? Because 'they paid in all those years'? This is 2023, not everyone has paid in. And ironically, it's probably those that haven't that actually would struggle to pay and should be exempt!

PS - I just dropped into my doctors this morning and the pharmacy counter that runs alongside it has huge windows that open into the small carpark literally the cars are up against said window.

Not sure what the answer is as NHS in under huge financial pressure, but you don't want to adopt the Australian system (which despite being private and state mix system) is collapsing.
Subsidised prescriptions here are mad. Antibiotics can cost about 20-25 quid (for a kid) the pill is a mere 18 quid for 2 months, generic blood clotting medicine is 50 quid per month etc. Its horrendous if you have a chronic condition and not much money.

But (I used to work in NHS) it is time that ibroprufen, aspirin and paracetamol are not issued under expensive prescription in UK when they cost so little in supermarkets. Ridiculous waste of money

I don't understand the cars part of the last post.

However on the subject of prescriptions my GP has since January dispensed via my pharmacy 84 tablets every two weeks for a drug of which I take one tablet per day. I could now have nearly a thousand of them. That bit of my prescription relating to another drug that keeps me alive is so messed up that I have two weeks supply for one half of it and four months for the other half.

I am very pleased that GP clearly has enough time to produce endless unnecessary prescriptions. I ha e now spoken to the practice manager, the prescription manager, written via the portal and spoken to the pharmacist. The surgery is blaming the pharmacy and vice versa. Yesterday the practice pharmacist phoned me up to see if I had any questions about my medication and couldn't answer why my prescriptions were in an absolute mess.

I am sorry to see so much hatred on this thread for older people. If so much vitriol were directed towards any other protected characteristic the entire thread would have been taken down by now.

In response to the pp. Of course senior execs tend to be boomers and gen x. They are the people with the experience and years of knowledge to lead organisations. I dread to think where we would be if we put an army of 25 to 30 year old in charge. I shall venture that we would all be overwhelmed by the mewl of potentially hurt feelings because things got tough.

I'm a few years off retirement age, but when I get there I ought to be paying because I'll be able to afford it. And it'll still be a bargain. There has to be a form of means testing doesnt there? Or would it really be too expensive to administer? I hope someone can answer that.

What frustrates me most is on the occasions I'm in the chemist to pick up my HRT there are folk picking up bagfuls of meds for whom help with lifestyle change would be way more beneficial, and cheaper. I'm not blaming these folk but suggesting they get more support and encouragement (or whatever - I'm not an expert) - and that would save money for all of us. I just don't understand why the public health nettle isn't being grasped. I have doctors in my wider family who tell us that preventable conditions are cropping up in younger and younger people.

And parcetomol and ibuprofen should only be available as over the counter, not prescription,

I really don't think there is any "hatred" of older people @RosesAndHellebores but the fact is statistically they are the wealthiest demographic and the rest of society just can't afford to keep giving out freebies where they aren't needed. The older people who are hard up should absolutely get free prescriptions, just like should happen with younger folk. But if we didn't hand out drugs (or cold weather payments etc) to people who don't need that money then maybe prescription prices for everyone could come down? Or we could invest that money elsewhere in the NHS.

🥱

To be frank given that I'm 61 and was suddenly deprived of retiring at 60 and 7 years pension, I don't feel that guilty collecting my £40 worth of meds every couple of months.

But there would be no money to invest.
It would all be spent ( and then some ) on means testing.