End Prescription Charges

ECPEngland

The prescription charges system is unfair, confusing and makes medications unafordable for many. I'm campaigning to abolish prescription charges in England.

Energize

I agree it's unfair, most medications are more expensive under the NHS prescription system than they are on a private prescription. But when a yearly prescription prepayment certificate costs £104 it's not really unaffordable.

ECPEngland

Research by the Prescription Charges Coalition has found that 1 in 3 people with a long-term condition who pay for prescription charges have not picked up their prescription because they couldn't afford their prescription. If people are stuggling to pay £8.60 for one prescription, they probably can't afford a £104 prescription card either.

ECPEngland

Another issue with the prepayement cards is that people forget to renew them. It leaves people stuck paying full price until they can get another card. Also, sometimes people forget they've expired and end up with fines.

BorisThomson

Who do you suggest pays for the prescriptions instead? What was the sample size of the research that reached the one in three figure, and how were the participants identified?

You can pay for the PPC monthly, you don't have to pay it all at once. You may also be entitled to assistance through the low income scheme.

I'd focus on ensuring the people you refer to are receiving any assistance they are entitled to, not placing even more of a burden on the NHS.

unforeseen

ECPEngland wrote: »

Another issue with the prepayement cards is that people forget to renew them. It leaves people stuck paying full price until they can get another card. Also, sometimes people forget they've expired and end up with fines.

Or they can use their common sense and pay by DD. The prepayment card will then auto renew with no gap

ECPEngland

It was a sample of 4,264 living in England who said they took medication for a long-term condition. I'm not allowed to post URLs (I will post it when I can) but you can find the full report on the Prescription Charges Coalition's website. (I'm not affiliated to the Prescription Charges Coalition)

Also, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society found that the money spent by the NHS on treating people didn't take their medication because they couldn't afford it is about the same as the total revenue generated by prescription charges. Once again, I can't post the URL, but you can find their report by searching "Prescription charges backfire on UK health and wealth"

esuhl

I'd be inclined to agree in abolishing the prescription charge, but... the NHS has much bigger problems than that at the moment.

It's been beyond breaking point for years, and underfunding is getting worse. The current government intend to let it fail so they can replace it with an insurance-based (profit-based) system.

I can't see the NHS lasting much longer.

Kim_13

The prescription charge may or may not be unaffordable, it depends on circumstances which aren't as simple as the current low income scheme assumes. Even that has two cut offs - £7,250 (I think) in savings higher if someone is in a care home, but no partial support with prescriptions for those in between the two like there is with care home funding. Then it assumes that those ineligible because of a partner's income can just get the partner to pay it - not all partners are going to stump up in these cases.

£8.60 in my opinion is too much - it's asking the lowest paid to work for more than an hour for one medicine. In times when pay in real terms is decreasing, it's more likely to be unaffordable now than it has been in the past and the one third figure doesn't surprise me.

A small charge is probably the best thing. That way it helps to reduce waste, as people are then careful to only order what they will actually need.

The primary concern for me at the moment is fairness. A postcode lottery is not fair, which is effectively what we have. It is also not fair that the charge is marketed as "an amount which successive governments have thought it fair to charge people who can afford to pay for their medication." That's clearly not accurate when a certain condition can exempt someone who can afford to pay, even from charges not related to that condition. Then there's the asthmatics, transplant recipients etc who still have to pay.

The whole PPC setup also seems to be more complicated than it needs to be. I recently had to pay for a prescription and when asked if I wanted the receipt, said yes and kept it safe etc. Why bother offering a receipt if it turns out that that isn't sufficient to get a refund if you later buy a PPC? The failure to offer 12 monthly DD's for the annual PPC also hurts those who can least afford to pay. It seems designed in the hope that certificates accidentally lapse so people can be fined. The DD option only exists on a 12 month certificate.

How much is it costing in admin because a blanket approach isn't applied to everyone?

Enterprise_1701C

If we actually managed to avoid treating people that were not entitled to free nhs treatment then it would make a big difference.

Far too many people come to this country specifically for the free treatment. They literally get off the plane and check into the nearest hospital.

It is the National Health Service, not the International Health Service.

sevenhills

BorisThomson wrote: »

Who do you suggest pays for the prescriptions instead?

Kim_13 wrote: »

A small charge is probably the best thing. That way it helps to reduce waste, as people are then careful to only order what they will actually need.

A small charge for everyone would bring in more revenue.

Nearly 90% of the 843 million prescription items dispensed each year are free. I am one of the 10% of the population that pays £8.60 per item, and I believe it is unfair.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/213884/dh_116367.pdf