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?

Having cleared out 3 properties due to death since 2014 (grandparents and parents)

I can honestly say something needs to change - all houses had unused, boxed prescription meds everywhere. The amount that was wasted was shocking.

My friend is in the process of clearing her mums house and exactly the same thing has happend there. Medication over-prescribed all over the place. Filling an entire Welsh dresser 😂 it's ridiculous.

I don't know if charging people is the answer but something needs to change to stop the wasted pills.

Whether that's just a Cornwall issue or nationwide I don't know.

So you think ALL pensioners are as rich as he is?!?! Tens of thousands of pensioners (most of whom have worked all their lives) are living in outright poverty!!!

If she's on state pension she's over state pension age. How would you feel about free pensions ending for those between 60 and state pension age? That would bring it in line with free bus passes which (outside London) are only available for those past pension age.

Your cousin could actually just go to a pharmacist for her sore elbow/rash rather than take up the time of a GP getting a prescription and then getting the medication free. If she really wanted to that is.

If I were to snuff it just after collecting my 3-month supply of prescription pills, I'd have "unused boxes of pills everywhere".

Yes - just so long as they also end blanket free prescriptions for children and pregnant women as well. Why should pensioners be the only ones to be means-tested? Totally unfair that I am paying £££ for my prescriptions while a pregnant woman on 5 x my salary gets them free, and so do her DC when they are born.

It doesn't work like that. There's NO link between what you pay in and what you get out. The amount you pay in (all) taxes is based on your income, spending, etc - people who have higher incomes pay more in, but can't expect more out than someone who has paid in less. People paying tax today and paying for today's benefits, not saving for their own benefits in years to come.

I highly doubt that generation of over 60s haven't paid plenty into the system over their lifetime. I don't begrudge them prescriptions and a nice car.

I have four or five different types of medication each month. I'm 59, under the current system I will get them free once I turn 60. Because I know I will be having medications every month I pay a prepayment subscription, and pay £11 or so. I would be quite happy to continue to pay this until I am at retirement age, 67 in my case.

It should be means tested, same with free bus passes etc.

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

Jumped the shark there.

Well, yes, mothers should be means tested too! The richest can afford to pay their own and should be forced to do so. Like child benefit, the "cut off" needs to be pretty high, so maybe around the same £50k income threshold.

No, we're talking more than 3 months supply. Way more than that.

3 months is reasonable and I know what that looks like because I also have 3 months supply :)

Totally unfair that I am paying £££ for my prescriptions while a pregnant woman on 5 x my salary gets them free, and so do her DC when they are born.

this wouldn't save any money as none is having kids!

My father was on ten different tablets and had a sharps box. It looked like loads of stockpiled drugs when I took it all back to the pharmacy when he died.
You know all those people who get bags of medication from the pharmacy monthly leave loads in the house when they die.

1. The £50k is now pretty low - if it had increased in line with inflation it would be £75k now.
2. The costs of means testing pregnant women would be ridiculous.

Why this obsession with means testing anyway, it is inefficient, so costs the tax payer more. Irrational.

I agree OP.

There is no reason why well off pensioners can't pay for prescriptions. The NHS is on its knees, we need to use it more sensibly.

We do not need to use it more sensibly. We need a government that properly funds it and does not cut in one place, increasing costs elsewhere.

Unless you want people to die in the streets for lack of medical care?

This^
Also remembering that kids and younger people haven't paid into the system for as long ( kids not at all ) as pensioners.
So have less right.

Does the nhs still hand out free powdered baby milk…!?

the "cut off" needs to be pretty high, so maybe around the same £50k income threshold

50k isn't high, the tax bands have been frozen for yrs

The equivalent money in 2010 was about 36k.

Whhhhyyyy do so many people want to take away everything? I want a free bus pass, I want a pension, I want free prescriptions, I want decent healthcare.

These things are entirely affordable and contribute to economic growth in our society.

The economic illiteracy of wanting to cut everything so there is nothing left and no growth is bonkers.

inflation matching increases to their state pension - a pension which is among the smallest in Europe.

Preventative medication that stops people getting iller is the best place to spend money. It saves money. Absolutely! Instead we have a system that classes joint replacements and cataract operations as "elective" and to be postponed at the drop of a hat, leaving people to become inactive with all the problems that brings.

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?

It's high. The majority of people are paid less than that.

You shilling for the Tories, OP? The older you get, the more likely you are to need a lot of prescriptions. It's very easy to suggest a solution that would suit YOU, personally. Other people would be disadvantaged by it.