Helping the government save money

[Samdelila]

I think free prescriptions for people with certain conditions should be means tested. What else could the government cut to save money?

Which conditions?

Have you any idea how much means-testing would cost 😐

But yeah, who's not allowed free prescriptions according to you, OP?

Rather than getting rid of free prescriptions which people require for genuine medical conditions (they're not given out like smarties), I think everyone making more of an effort to take care of their overall health would save the government billions every year. Prevention is better than cure.

Also how would means-testing work given it would cost money to monitor plus some drugs are hugely more expensive than others and prices fluctuate over time due to the costs of research and clinical trials that need to be recouped, monopoly pricing, supply chain disruptions, etc. Plus new drugs can cost thousands of pounds a year due to 20-year patents - take Kadcyla (breast cancer drug) when it first came out - £90,000 a year per patient. Would that be means-tested as a 'certain condition' under your new rules? You sound like you are starting a two-tiered system.

We are so sheltered from the true costs of drugs thanks to the NHS.

Have you? Finding a way to means test would be a huge step forward in many areas. We simply have to stop saying, 'it's too expensive/difficult to means test'.

Easier to just raise the age to 67

The Free prescription for certain conditions is a ridiculous system
by all means the medication relevant to the condition should be free
but they get every prescription for unrelated conditions free as well charge them

I know someone who earns more than £200,000 who has diabetes type 2 and gets all her prescriptions for free, so people like her basically.

The age of what? Free prescriptions? Prescriptions are free for everyone in Scotland and Wales.

So if you mean England then you also mean no more free prescriptions for:

• Anyone under 16, or 16-18 and in full-time education
• Pregnant women or those who had a baby in the past 12 months
• Inpatients in hospitals
• People on benefits or low incomes
• People with long-term conditions under the age of 67

What other conditions, OP?

i don’t begrudge the relevant medication free who contributes over 76k into the public purse more than most of us earn

People like her who pay more tax which goes back into the overall system that funds the NHS? She pays far more in tax than her prescription annually would cost...

Ensuring her T2D is well controlled on medication will reduce the likelihood of complications so sounds sensible to me. Given the amount of tax she's paying, she's more than entitled to her share of healthcare resources. Good for her for making such a sizeable contribution in tax.

Perhaps you are looking at it the wrong way, she is paying far more into the pot than many…

That’s what she says.

i thibk they should tell us the cost of the medicines. maybe we’d appreciate them more that way and not take them for granted.

Anything under a fiver that you don’t need much of shouldn’t be free on prescription in scotland for working adults it should be up to us to self fund, for example paracetamol and cough bottle. no idea how they could do that right enough.

did you know that a liquid antibiotic for kids is £109.
mental isn’t it. and if it’s a big kid (or an adult wirh swallowing pills issues like elderly)they'd potentially need a longer course.

it all adds up. and then we have political parties promising to cut tax. why. how can we make improvements without money out into the system.

we defo need to change somwthimg. dunno what it how. but i think we all know that. duesnt mean we have to like it.

YANBU. Personally I think ALL (and I mean ALL) benefits should be means tested. Yes, that includes free prescriptions, state pension, child benefit, even disability benefits. BUT, I think the criteria needs to be a relatively high level, such as £60k personal annual income or £100k personal annual income. They can means test child benefit over £60k and means test to remove the tax free personal allowance (and free childcare) over £100k. We just need to extend that idea to ALL benefits. No one with an income of £100k needs ANY benefits at all.

So would you be happy to pay more for prescriptions to cover the cost of means testing ?

If we can’t claw back unneeded freebies from someone on £200,000 then we’re never going to save money in this country.

How about we expect those not contributing enough to step up and put more in the pot.

I think that's the killer really. Fair enough that, say, Diabetes drugs are prescribed free of charge, but why does that also apply to other things that the person was on before Diabetes diagnosis that they previously paid for? Why should it apply to completely unrelated drugs for unrelated conditions?

We already know who hasn’t got enough money to live on - the people claiming benefits!

There is already a potentially expensive system in operation for those qualifying for free prescriptions which includes periodically having to re-apply which involves a GP confirming the qualifying diagnosis, then all the admin within the local trust, issuing free prescription cards, maintaining the database, etc.

Strip that away and link it to tax records, as already happens with the £60k and £100k thresholds. After all, those with very high incomes are already either known to HMRC via PAYE or via self assessment tax returns, so it could be a quick and efficient way to grant exemptions. After all, they use that system for the child benefit clawback, the personal allowance withdrawal and loss of free childcare, so there's a precedent and systems in place already which could be extended to the issue of free prescription cards.

House of Lords. Happy to be corrected but think around £250-£350 a day for each person if they 'sign in'. Get rid of subsidised food/ drink in HOP etc. Review Mp's expenses.....for starters.

It's hardly a freebie. His/her tax bill will be eye-watering.

Yes this would definitely be my choice over someone with one of the listed health conditions.