Prescription charges for the over sixties

I don’t know if this is still true but I remember in the past that in Wales, when the medicine prescribed was too expensive the Welsh health board wouldn’t cover it and so people rented flats in England to get their treatment covered. Of course things may have changed and please correct me if this is the case.

Nanawind

Over 60's in England get free prescriptions and free eye tests.
Yet Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland get free prescriptions what ever age you are.
Not all over 60's are comfortable off.

Yet most dare I say elderly people are on multiply tablets, the optician laughed at me last week when I added yet another to the list. I seem to be on two tablets for every ailment, I need a carry bag to pick the two monthly prescriptions up.
Just before the pandemic the practise nurse offered to pay for me to go to a Slimming club and join a walking group. As she had already rattled me I answered by saying"Only if you come with me", she was so plump she had trouble sitting on her chair which I didn't have. Surely if people are so overweight they should pay for the clubs themselves or maybe they cannot afford them as most of their cash goes on Rubbish food.
I could pay the charges as my husband is still alive and we are comfortably off but feel for the lady who says she could not manage.
Maybe they will introduce some kind of means test.

But I am still unhappy that this proposal only affects those living in England. It states that the changes are linked to the Covid debt when all parts of the U.K. received the funding yet raised taxes etc are not being applied across the whole of the U.K.

Sorry to be blunt but why are the English so uptight about free prescriptions in Wales and Scotland? We get our share of the Union's money to spend, and our government decided to spend it on giving us all free prescriptions. Its a good thing. Health is devolved, its our decision to make. And we already pay more income tax in Scotland than down south. We'll see cuts in other things, I'm sure. If you think its unfair, tell your government that you want free prescriptions too. Or vote for another government.

I paid tax and Nat insurance for 44 years like many others, still pay tax on my pension, still waiting to receive my state pension as the government put the age up to 66, so feel no guilt whatsoever in getting my 2 monthly prescription for a lifelong medication, I’ve paid my way and then some.

Regarding the cost of the prepayment certificates, I bet they will become more expensive before too long!

I have completed the online consultation on changing prescription charges, took about two minutes so I suggest everyone here does it. I just googled “ prescription charge consultation” and found it on the Gov webpage. There is a question about not applying the proposed change to people who are already over 60 but not yet 66 so they would not need to start paying. I ticked that as I agree that the concession should not be taken away from people already eligible to free prescriptions, it’s bad enough having my state pension age changed!

But I am still unhappy that this proposal only affects those living in England. It states that the changes are linked to the Covid debt when all parts of the U.K. received the funding yet raised taxes etc are not being applied across the whole of the U.K.

If an item is less over the counter a prescription shouldn't be given.Some doctors aren't vigilant when prescribing.

Reading posts on here I am worried by how few people seem to be aware that you can buy prescription prepayment certificates

If free prescriptions disappeared for older people ,just over £108 a year will buy you a prescription prepayment certificate to cover a years worth of medications, regardless of how many you take.

Yes all prescriptions are free for everyone in Scotland. My understanding is that once this became law it was "Cost Neutral" because there no longer needed to be a whole department to administer the system and check each prescription. Also it saved pharmacies a lot of time and trouble when they no longer had to ensure whether people were entitled or not. If this is the case in Wales and Scotland, why has it not been introduced in England?

I cannot understand why Asthma does not come under free prescriptions. Serious life threatening illness.

Having paid NI all my working life, from 16 onwards, I feel that all OAP’s should have free prescriptions as should those with certain medical conditions. What I disagree with is all age groups here in Wales get free prescriptions. I believe that up to retirement age we should all pay something for our medication. Here in Wales, we are limited to having costly cancer medications for example because there isn’t enough money in the coffers. On the flip side of the coin, when prescriptions became free people were asking for Panadol on script when the actual cost was so small, showing how greedy some people are. I just find the whole system is so abused here that something needs to be done.

Prescriptions are free for all in Scotland.
Pensioners ie 60 and over should not have to pay for prescriptions!
I have 12 items on repeat prescription every month.
It’s bad enough I have to wait until I’m 66 for my State Pension! £40k plus I’ve lost out on and no real time when working to make adequate provision for losing this large sum of money.

Well said, Gabrielle56 I'm not sure how your post about the dentist would work, but your first post reflects my opinion exactly.

For the past decade or so, we have all been turned against one another, and in no case more blatently than the intergenerational conflict that is used to steal from the old and to justify fleecing the young.

I'm not asking for young people to subsidise me. I'm asking for the system that I paid into to pay me back, in the same way that my contributions paid the pensions of those before me. Yes, many of us live longer now, but many more women pay in than used to, so the number of contributions is higher. The 15% mortgage rate I paid subsidised the savings rates of those who had money in savings when I couldn't afford to save. Since my own turn to save arrived (even though it's been at very low rates all along), there have been constant calls to claw it back, as over people are supposedly 'comfortable' - perish the thought.

Yes, I have an occupational pension, but it didn't come free, and I was only able to pay into it from the age of 37 as when I was young people on part-time or temporary contracts didn't have a right to belong to occupational pensions, and these contracts were the norm for new starters in my profession.

As for the house price resentment - massive gains from house ownership do not apply across the country, and in any case not all older people are homeowners.

I am speaking only about myself, obviously, and am not necessarily representative of all older people. But that is part of the point - not all older people are the same, and to make sweeping policies that include all of us - rich poor, those who have worked and those who haven't, home owners and renters, savers and spenders, the sick and the ill, those with pensions and those without is such a blunt instrument.

What I think is vital to a cohesive society, however, is that people should be able to make choices in life based on the expectation that what governments say is true, and that their promises will be honoured. To move goalposts when it is too late for people to go back and do things differently is to deny them the right to plan ahead, and IMO it destabilises society.

Well said Hymmbook!

This is disgraceful. My brother-in-law is only 62 still working full-time he won't be receiving state pension until at least 67. He has a lot of health issues including a heart condition . He is taking a lot of medication. I dread to think how much his prescriptions would cost him each month. Why do a lot of people think we pensioners retired or otherwise are well off! I wouldn't go anywhere much if l didn't have my bus pass.

As someone who missed out on getting my pension at 60 and not that well off, I rejoiced to get my prescriptions ‘for free’. We really don’t get much in the way of benefits.

How's about deciding they are really important and giving us all our prescriptions for nothing?

(See: Scotland and Wales )

Huge amounts of NHS money could be saved by ending the system whereby if you suffer from an ailment the medication for which is not charged for then all your prescription items are given to you free of charge. I was diagnosed with epilepsy at 17, for which I take two different tablets and must do for life. The epilepsy medication is on the ‘free’ list. I also have asthma and various other jolly ailments and the net result of that is that I have, and have had for decades, seven prescription items each month (sometimes six if I haven’t needed an inhaler quite so much and don’t need to re-order - I’m scrupulous about not stock piling these medicines given to me). I have always thought this system is iniquitous. There are people who can’t afford a medicine their doctor tells them to take, which he/she considers they need, and there is no cheaper equivalent. Some life-threatening conditions don’t qualify for free medication - I had a friend years ago whose mother had a serious heart condition but didn’t get free prescriptions. A bad asthma attack would be more likely to kill me than a seizure but medication wouldn’t be free. For decades I was in very highly paid work and felt the system which insisted on giving me these freebies was appalling. Since passing state pension age everything was of course free anyway (though I was still working full time at same job) but over the years the NHS has given me vast amounts of free drugs whilst I was a very high earner, albeit of course paying NI and high taxes. If this part of the system were addressed, which I feel could be done far more easily and cost-effectively than the administrative palaver of means testing, the NHS would save a great deal of money and there need be no argument about over-60s, working or not, getting free prescriptions. But then my impression of the NHS over many years, despite receiving excellent care for which I am truly grateful, is that they excel at wasting taxpayers’ money whilst there are unfortunate folk just above the benefits threshold who can’t afford medication and of course millions on waiting lists, some with conditions which require immediate treatment.

How’s about those who feel like paying give a donation to the NHS. Problem solved.

I dare say I’ve said this before on here, but a Swedish friend told me that back home, everyone pays a small amount for prescriptions (adults at least, not sure about children) with an annual cap for those who need a lot.

Even her dad, who was over 90 and not very well off, had to pay.
They also pay something for A&E visits, and towards the ‘board’ element of hospital stays.
And this is Sweden, popularly supposed to be a socialist utopia.

The trouble here in the U.K. is that ‘free at the point of use’ (except for prescriptions, obvs.) is such a sacred cow that I doubt that any govt. will ever have the guts to change it.

But without tax rises, the system as it stands is evidently unsustainable. The NHS is a very different animal from when it was first born - so many more sophisticated and complex treatments, not to mention expensive drugs, than there ever were then.

Will cost us a small fortune for DH meds if we have to pay!!

I’ve thought for a while that everyone should pay a small amount. Possibly £1 per prescription with maybe more than one item on it. I think everyone could afford that and it would save all the administration costs relating to who gets it free and who does it.
The danger might be that the price would gradually creep up but it seems a much simpler system to me. I think I read somewhere that at least 70% of prescriptions are not paid for.

I'm 63 and get free prescriptions due to having my thyroid removed due to cancer. I will be on medication for the rest of my life. I am also a WASPI woman and cannot get my state pension until I'm 66. I am not well off and live on a very small NHS pension which I managed to accrue in my last 10 years of working life. Many older women, who did not have well paid work, or didn't work full time whilst bringing up children could not afford to pay into private pensions, especially if, like me, you were also a single mum. Unlike young mothers of today, I did not get tax credits, housing benefit, or any other benefits available today. So, before penalising women over 60 the government should look into saving money by shaking up the benefits system. There are many young people bringing up families who have never had any intention of working and now have the perfect excuse not to. And as to how 'hard up' they are, including the ones who do work, its a matter of perspective. They say they are broke but still have the latest mobile phones on expensive contracts, sky TV packages, and drive 'new' cars paid for on monthly contracts, not to mention the take out coffees and meals that have become 'normal'. When I was a 'hard up' young working mum, I couldn't afford to keep the heating on after the children had gone to bed and I drove a rusty old car. So I think I deserve my free prescription - apart from 'family allowance ' its the only thing I've ever claimed off the government yet paid my taxes since I was 16 years of age.

I'm over 60 but also have an exemption card for the medication I take so wouldnt affect me either way

Don't get me started on dental charges! I have excellent beautiful teeth and have looked after them all my life . I'm NHS dental patient. I very very rarely need anything doing yet I'm still charges 23£ for dentist to look in my gob then declare"well they're all ok and you've got the best gums I've seen in a long time!" Really? What about discount for those of us who have saved NHS dentistry £100000s ok ver our lives by actually looking after our own teeth!?! There's not going to be many aged 70-80 with a perfectly sound full set of gnashers so why not give us a thanks with no charges? And £250 for varifocals? Duh! Didn't need specs til 43 and now it appears I need new pair every 2years?at this rate I'll be curating a collection of obsolete spex worth around£10k....do we get trade-in? Nope. Even though my old specs could be donated to those who may be able to get use of them in less wealthy countries?