Why can you not get inhalers for asthma free if it is a life threatening disease when you get free meds for other life threatening diseases

[ItalianLady]

Apparently, anyway.

I am not unduly worried as I have an annual card now but in the past I haven't got as many inhalers as I have needed due to cost.

Free prescriptions for medical conditions are actually quite limited. On the NHS website it says:

^Medical exemption (MedEx) certificates are issued on application to people who have:

A permanent fistula (for example caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy or ileostomy) requiring an appliance or continuous surgical dressing.

A form of hypoadrenalism (for example Addison's disease) for which specific substitution therapy is needed.

Diabetes insipidus or other forms of hypopituitarism.

Diabetes mellitus, except where treatment is by diet alone.

Hypoparathyroidism.

Myasthenia gravis.

Myxoedema (hypothyroidism requiring thyroid hormone replacement).

Epilepsy requiring continuous anticonvulsive therapy.

Continuing physical disability which means the person can't go out without the help of another person. Temporary disabilities do not count even if they last for several months.

You are also issued with a MedEx if you are undergoing treatment for cancer. This includes treatment for the effects of cancer or for the effects of cancer treatments.^

I had asthma when I was younger. Grew out of in my early 20's. While the prescription charge is £7.20 a standard ventolin inhaler contained 200 doses the last time I had one so it lasts a fair bit.

you could say that for high blood pressure and warfarin and people who are on statins due to family history. where would it end. there has to be a line drawn and you can grow out of asthma. If you knew the prices of some medicines i am sure you would be grateful for our £7.20 per item.
I have just recently had some immunoglobulin treatment at £15.000 for the injections,so i am eternally grateful for our small charges. It evens itself out long term.

Exactly alypaly. I was on serevent and flixotide when I had asthma and I was told that the cost of the flixotide alone was £35 per prescription. The charge back then was about £5. So a good deal in actual fact!

I now have PCOS and am on medication for that. It isn't life threatening but it is chronic in that it's never going to go away but as you say alypaly, where would it end, they'd have to grant everyone free prescriptions for long term conditions in the end!

Currently only 12% of people pay the charges anyway. Everyone under 16 or 19 if in F/T education, anyone over 60, anyone pregnant or given birth in last year, no one pays for hormonal contraception, medical exemptions, etc etc etc.

I never realised it was 12% who paid - that's incredibly low!
I developed asthma a couple years ago (am in my late 30's) and up till then vaguely assumed repeat prescriptions were free: I'd never given it much thought to be honest . I don't mind paying prescription charges: it's a drop in the ocean against the cost of the meds.

As an Addisonian, I get all my prescriptions free. I have no idea why. Why am I condsidered more deserving than someone on permanent Warfarin, or immunosuppressants after an organ transplant? It makes no sense.

DB has had a transplant, has developed diabetes as a complication of his treatment, and is on very expensive immunosuppressants. He has a prepaid prescription card, but his drugs still cost him £600 per year.

Whilst he is lucky, and very grateful, to be alive, the system really doesn't make any sense.

"He has a prepaid prescription card, but his drugs still cost him £600 per year."

How come? The prepay costs around £120 I think from memory?

I have asthma and have to take 6 doses a day of my inhaler plus a tablet plus the reliever. Adds up to about £20 per month. That doesn't take account of steroid tablets and antibiotics. The most recent chest infection I had needed four courses of antibiotics and two of steroids. I get chest infections about three times a year and that amount of medication is usual for me. So annual cost of £370 is a significant amount to me.

Mollie, seriously, get a prepay - £104 a year (have just looked it up!)

I'm on 2 inhalers, 1 nasal spray and 2 different tablets. The prepay is a godsend.

NHS Prepayment Certificate

The immunosuppressants he has to take are not provided on the card as they are not the standard ones. I don't really understand it, but I think he has to make up the difference in the cost. I will ask him next time I see him. I am sure he has looked into it all though - he has been on them for years.

localmum, that's shocking :(

According to my pharmacist friend, a Salbutamol inhaler costs the NHS £75.

My GP puts four inhalers on one £7.20 prescription, so I'm not about to complain.

I have three autoimmune diseases but none fall into the free prescriptions category. I don't mind though because they were free when I had a colostomy, which I was glad to see the back of, and I was recently tested for Addisons and was so glad it was negative, even if I have to buy a pre-pay certificate.

When you look at the criteria, I'm afraid that I think Asthma comes quite far down on the list of things that should be added. The inhalers are such good value that very few people wouldn't buy them on cost grounds whereas things like diabetes really need you to constantly be getting prescriptions or you will cost more for everyone in the long run.

For me Epi pens would probably come next as they need replaced and people might not do so on cost grounds - that isn't even something that affects me personally but I can see a real case for it. If asthma is severe enough to count as a disability then you are covered (under the disability bit), otherwise you should really look at how ill the people on this list are and count yourself lucky next time you hand over £7.

you could say the same for meds for mental health problems too

I think that dental treatment should be free - if left absesses etc can be fatal ut people don't go to the dentist as they can't afford it

To an extent this is politics - those with the lobbies to shout loudest may get rewarded with free prescriptions.

Over time it's developed in a somewhat arbritrary manner. The logical thing would be to make all prescriptions free. But this will never happen, especially not in the current climate. I was born with a heart condition, I have to take two (and probably more in time) for life. I pay.

But £120 means that it isn't out of my reach. I'm shocked though by localmum - are these drugs excluded by NICE which you must pay for in full? But there's a can of worms - I support(ed) the idea of NICE (fair rationing, not political) wholeheartedly!

i have to say though that everyone in wales gets all prescriptions free of charge - so it is possible that they could revert to being free for the entire country

but we miss out on things like the swineflu helpline where you could arrange for meds to be at a pharmacy waiting for you

And in Scotland they are dropping to £3 per item and to be abolished at a later date. Lets not forget the free dental treatment and eye tests in Scotland too.

But the English must foot the full bill for the lot. I don't understand why. That to me is more baffling than the criteria on medical grounds. Are we the UK or are we not? There should not be different rules for different areas, we're the same country.

Imagine the uproar if England got freebies and the others did not. We don't complain enough.

PS blushingm the swineflu helpline was shit. You didn't miss much. You were 'diagnosed' by a 16 year old with no medical qualifications and most of the people haneded out tamiflu didn't need it.

People with kidney infections, meningitis etc were wrongly diagnosed as everyone with a high temperature and flu like symptoms were autmoatically diagnosed.