Asthmatics in England pay for prescriptions

[Auburngal]

Any asthmatic in England who doesn't qualify for free prescriptions pay has to pay for their prescriptions.

Hopefully these people have some sense and get a prepayment certificate for £114.50. Which is paid monthly over 10 months per year. I have three daily asthma medications plus reliever and an emergency pack of oral steroids. If I didn't have a prepaid certificate - I would have spend about £420 a year (prescriptions are £9.90 per item)

Its disgusting that asthmatics have to pay for medication that makes them able to breathe and live a normal life. Over the past 5 years, 4 people have died per day from asthma.

Some sources say asthma isn't exempt as people grow out of it. Bullshit. My asthma has got WORSE since having covid twice. Before covid, I was on reliever and one daily medication. Now the daily medication is double strength and on two further meds. Plus I didn't get diagnosed with asthma till I was 12/13.

Even my GP who I saw an hour ago thinks its disgusting and he's asthmatic himself.

I pay £11 a month and get all my medication for asthma and arthritis included.

One of our horses had asthma and it costs £90 a two inhalers, exactly the same as the ones I get included for my £11 a month!

Nothing is free. Everything is paid for by someone somewhere.

This is so often forgotten.

I live in Scotland where prescriptions are free for everyone. I don't support it despite being on medication for life. I feel the money could be better spent elsewhere and as you have pointed out people can get year long certificates so they don't work out very expensive. I also think it would prevent people from getting prescriptions they don't need.
I do support free prescriptions for people who are unable to afford them though.

Yes, DH has asthma and pays. I have MS and pay for my prescriptions too, with the exception of my disease modifying drug, that is sent to me at home.

We pay much more tax in Scotland. I would think this is where the funding comes from in our case. I don't support free prescriptions. I dont mind paying highers taxes but would rather the money was spent elsewhere

I agree that all lifelong conditions should be treated equally. Diabetics should not be getting free prescriptions- they need to pay the £10 per month like everyone else. It doesn’t make any sense- either prescriptions are free for all or everyone pays (except children/pensioners/unemployed etc).

I say this as someone who has had obesity for a long time and at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes through my own lifestyle choices.

The problem is that a robust system of means-testing is expensive. A lot of the money that pays for free prescriptions would instead go to pay for the bureaucracy to assess who’s eligible. And there are absolutely people who would go without medication because they’re short of money.

I’m not sure how much of a problem unnecessary prescriptions are, really? If a doctor prescribes something, I assume it’s medically necessary? I guess there’s the issue that people get prescriptions for things they could just buy themselves over the counter - I don’t imagine that’s a big percentage of overall prescribing, but maybe I’m wrong.

no one is “paying” for their medication in full - medicines are heavily subsidised. Your £10 a month likely doesn’t even scratch the surface.

Surely someone just showing proof of receipt of certain benefits along with ID in the pharmacy would be suffice and not expensive to implement? I assume England is means tested and some dont have to pay?
I agree that the issue with being prescribed say paracetamol which costs the NHS much more than us buying it over the counter ourselves is not a huge problem but I'm very much of the thinking that every little helps.
It's like when people say they won't bother doing things to help save the environment because their impact is so tiny- perhaps, but if everyone has that attitude there will never be any progress. I'm also an optimist so I always think every tiny thing we do can roll up into something bigger.

You can put the money back into the NHS by getting a prepayment certificate anyway.

And the person who is £1 over the cut off?

Some of us don't pay and just tick a box saying we're exempt. I've never been asked for proof.

Making prescriptions free for asthmatics would open a flood gate , £10 per month isn’t a vast amount to pay .

That's why I said a few..

I’m sure some retired people wouldn’t mind paying £114.50 a year for medication.

So have no exceptions and make everyone pay for the nominal charge of an annual certificate. That would be fair too. £10 a month for potentially thousands of pounds worth of medications is a bargain.

DH gets his blood pressure meds, nerve pain meds, heavy duty pain meds, all under a certificate. I get blood pressure meds and hrt under a certificate. They are good value for money.

Where do you draw the line though? If asthmatics (I used to have asthma, it disappeared when I moved abroad to the mountains) were to get free prescriptions then you'd have to make medications for lots of other long-term conditions free too and that's just not possible.
There's a solution and that's a pre-payment certificate which you have and it isn't that much per month.

I'm really ill and will be for a very long time. I don't expect my prescriptions for free even though it would cost me £50 per month if I had not bought a pre-payment cert. I am overwhelmingly grateful for the NHS and the incredible care I am getting and don't think while they pay for my scans, ultrasounds, blood tests that it is unreasonable for me to pay for my meds.

I agree. DM and her husband had bags of meds every month. Free. They were incredibly wealthy, and were prescribed a plethora of drugs, including many OTC drugs. It's ridiculous. Most got thrown away unused when they died.

But they're free for other medical conditions?

I'm asthmatic and have used 3 inhalers a month for 30yrs.

And I don't mind paying.

I used to live in Ireland where they cost €70 a month.

£11 a month is much better in the UK!

I would like to say that there seems to be an opinion that T2 diabetes is an effect of lifestyle choices. T2’s are often assumed to be fat and lazy people who eat crap.
That is not so in my case or many others.
We get free prescriptions because if we become ill we can get much worse very quickly and take longer to recover - possibly requiring more meds. I’m fortunate in being well controlled - because I take my free meds, eat sensibly and exercise a lot.
However, an asthmatic can also become very ill very quickly and unfortunately this can mean dying.
Overall, many of us could afford £10 pm and that’s not unreasonable.

It’s because the list was created in 1968. Asthma inhalers weren’t a commonly available treatment at that point, same with epipens. All of the exempt conditions, other than cancer that was added in 2008/2009, had a regular treatment at the time the list was created.

Yeah one of mine is about £6000 per year

Sorry I don't understand? There is always going to be a cut off somewhere. If they don't receive the benefits then they dont receive the prescriptions

But that's quite a cliff edge. Especially when you consider that some people have several different medications. That means by being a pound or two over, they're worse off than someone a pound under. The cut off is low too - £935 per month for people with children or in support group / LCWRA and £435 per month for everyone else.