NHS Drug Prices

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Sarah
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by Sarah » Sun Jul 04 2021 1:09pm

expressman33 wrote:
Sun Jul 04 2021 12:51pm
I have been getting regular medication since I was about 50 , until I was 60 I managed to make 2 x 3 monthly PPC's get enough medication for over a year.
I can usually get by on 2-to-3 certificates per year by playing that game. It somewhat depends how much your GP is willing to push the limits for the qty of each medication on a prescription. They won't exceed 56 days for one of my medications and another is limited to 60 days. I'm not age 50 yet but have still been looking forward to receiving free prescriptions for a long time already!
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by pabenny » Sun Jul 04 2021 1:16pm

macliam wrote:
Sun Jul 04 2021 11:50am
The age of 60 was never the general pension age
It aligned with the (then) state pension age for women.
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by pabenny » Sun Jul 04 2021 1:22pm

Sarah wrote:
Sun Jul 04 2021 12:32pm
That £800+ ballpark figure is based on approximately 8 years of PPCs
Clearly arithmetically correct. It would be equally true to say the impact is less than 30p/day at most, and for many people it would be much less.
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by pabenny » Sun Jul 04 2021 1:29pm

How about coming at the question another way. If you don't like this proposal, how else would you raise the £300m annually for NHS. You have to be specific - merely saying reduce waste or raise taxes on the rich is too vague.

Also bear in mind that we already exempt many people on income grounds or with (certain) chronic conditions, and so most of those affected can afford less 30p/day (or maximum of £800 over 8 years).
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by Sarah » Sun Jul 04 2021 2:12pm

This is a government that just flushed over £200 billion down the toilet for Brexit and you want a debate on where it can possibly find £300 million to fund an existing health spending commitment? Well, there's the lie that more money would be available to the NHS post-Brexit; or more realistically the government would have to borrow/issue funds via BoE if it's unable to balance the books, just like every other expenditure.
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by pabenny » Sun Jul 04 2021 6:34pm

Brexit is a done deal - in that the UK is now outside the EU, with all the consequences. But is £200bn the annual cost to the exchequer of Brexit? (Clue - total UK tax revenue is about £600bn)


We all (well, most of us) want more funding for the NHS. The trouble is, we all (or most of us) think we shouldn't be the ones providing any of that funding.
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Jul 04 2021 7:07pm

I continue to wonder how the other countries of the UK manage to afford to give free prescriptions to everyone. What are they doing to make it affordable that England seems unable to do?
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by macliam » Mon Jul 05 2021 1:29am

The same people who deided to split the population over Brexit and immigration are now trying to split it over age-related benefits.

This is just populist subterfuge designed to deflect focus on the corruption and waste due to ministerial incompetence. Why not ask some of the Government's friends to hand back the money they stole for PPE, etc.?
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by pabenny » Mon Jul 05 2021 8:34am

With respect, that's just deflection by criticising the messenger. Incompetence and cronyism have undoubtedly been part of this government's response to Covid. But that is largely irrelevant to harmonising the qualifying date for age-related benefits.
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Re: NHS Drug Prices

Post by blythburgh » Mon Jul 05 2021 8:52am

If you expect the 60+ to wait longer for free prescriptions you need to change the exemptions. Many things that are necessary to life like asthma and post organ transplant drugs are not on the exemption list. Why? Because the list is one that goes back far, far too many years.

I can remember a conversation a friend had and told me about. He was benefits for being too ill to work. His neighbour was on Income Support but on the higher rate as he had learning difficulties. My friend had to pay for his prescriptions (he had to have a few different prescriptions). The neighbour said it is not fair you get more money than I do but neither of us can work. My friend pointed out that he had to pay for his prescriptions and so ended up with less money. And he was doing everything he could to cut the cost.

And sister in law/husband get free prescriptions due to age. He has 3 different works pensions, the first started when he as 15 and he now pays income tax on his private and state pensions. His wife also has the state pension and a work pension but her income is below the tax threshold.

So how fair is the free prescriptions for pensioners? Maybe an income thing for getting free prescriptions would be fairer. I bet no Govt. would ever dare do that and force "rich" pensioners pay for medicines when "poor" workers get the for free.
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