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?

i'm sure he could pay if he was really embarrassed

AIBU to think that free prescriptions should be limited to those in pension credit just like Universal Credit?

Yes you are. You are aware that many pensioners don't get pension credit and still don't have much money?

You do not know what the income of these people in front of you is, so how can you guess what they need? And do you know whether they own those cars? Or perhaps they lease them on a motability scheme? You are simply making gross assumptions about other peoples lives which you cannot substantiate.

I find it extremely hard to believe that you don't have enough money to pay a single prescription charge, but if that is true, perhaps you should work harder or stop spending your money on things that you don't need? How does it feel when the shoe is on the other foot???

And coincidentally yes, I am over 60 and just went and picked up my big bag of medicine from the pharmacy - for my disability, which you are welcome to have if you want it - in my car leased on the motability scheme, which I do not own.

I agree OP but many will say we're being ageist. I think bring the free prescriptions (and bus passes) in-line with state retirement age.

No neither can I but I don’t have a choice! I never have medication for anything other than depression and that’s only to allow me to work as I can’t afford it, same as why I never go to the dentist or buy new glasses until I would not be safe to drive in the old ones.

Agreed. No matter your age, it should be means-tested.

A pre payment certificate is £111 a year which can be by DD over 10 months

Thes system we have in England costs more than free prescriptions because a) the admin is higher b) more people end up off work due to not being able to afford their meds.

Charging for meds is one of those policies that is penny smart, pound stupid.

ODFOD

I completely agree that paracetamol and ibuprofen should not be on free prescription in most cases. It's so cheap to buy. I was almost prescribed it once and I declined - it was ridiculous for the NHS to pay for it for me. I was not going to die without it.

We can’t have everything free, money doesn’t just appear from nowhere

This is just ridiculous. I can't roll my eyes enough

1. How the fuck would someone get a visa, then NHS number, then housing, then register with a GP, to enable them to claim?
2. The introduction of free prescription in Wales and Scotland has not had this impact (because it is a fantasy in your xenophobic paranoid head)

Immigrants are less likely than average UK citizens to need healthcare at the point they enter due to being young, and then they work, pay tax, boost GDP, increase the available resource for public services and we get a better healthcare system.

Our economy is slowly grinding to a halt since European immigration was stopped. We are all getting poorer due to pandering to the racist anti-immigrant obsessions of the Daily Mail readership.

My 4 prescriptions keep me alive. I pay the pre payment certificate but even that's hard. By the time I'm 60 I believe I have the right to free percriptions to keep me alive and out of hospital, especially considering for percriptions will increase over time.

I agree but I'm sure it isn't a popular view. Of course the ideal would be for no one to pay but that's unlikely to happen. I'd rather have it means tested for over 60s and use the (still low contributions) from more over 60s paying for them to subsidise those who don't currently qualify due to income for free prescriptions but are struggling. The general idea is that people have paid lots into the system by this point, but with the skewed demographics now it doesn't scratch the surface, we will have even less when we reach 60 I'm sure depressingly.

It isn’t a ‘right’ it’s a current policy which may change

My 4 prescriptions keep me alive. I pay the pre payment certificate but even that's hard.

This is what's bollocks. That you have to pay for medication that you can't survive without and struggle to do so.

Are they lifelong? I thought you could get medical exemption if so.

And if it does more people will die or spend much more time in hospital

I'd rather over 60s who have enough money to comfortably pay paid and people such as yourself were exempt from paying- surely that's fairer? Plenty of ways to establish those over 60 who couldn't afford it and keep them free as is now, but there are pockets of people who have paid off their mortgage at that point and do have a reasonable amount of disposable income.

Surely if you want to pay. Pay? Don’t tick the back of prescription.
Also if you are on long term paracetamol, can someone let me know how you buy enough for a month. If taking 8 a day. That doesn’t involve walking to every shop in town.

The current system costs money to administer and the NHS is picking up the tab for worsening health conditions. Free prescriptions would reduce costs.

Functioning economies generate wealth for the nation. We have an increasing issue of people of working age not able tow ork due to not having NHS treatment. The NHS is needed if we all want to feel better off.

This may have been mentioned @Idratherbepaddleboarding (haven't TTFT) but a prescription pre payment may help. I get 11 drugs a month and couldn't afford them without it. It's £10 a month and a Godsend.

Yes they are lifelong and no I carnt get an medical exemption. Jesus some people really do live in cloud coo coo land.

Our pharmacy lets you buy boxes of 32 over the counter, so you can buy two of them.

If your supermarket has a pharmacy, you can get them when you get your weekly shop.

Administering a means-tested system across the board would cost a fortune. Aboslute waste of money. People want to make petty points even when it is proven to cost more. Illogical.

Do people who agree with the OP all assume it would save money, or is it more about the principle and something you'd be prepared to spend more state money on if needs be?

Oh, dfod.
They stole my pension. I was entitled to that nearly six years ago. The least they can do is pay for my fucking drugs.