Payment for prescriptions

Seems reasonable to me. As long as it's means tested.

I'm not instinctively against that idea either but money isn't the main cause of NHS problems. There is a lot of waste and inefficiency plus not enough doctors and nurses. We have relied for too long on doctors and nurses from other countries and, while I have no personal reason to mind that, on principle it doesn't seem fair to the countries they come from who often must need them more than we do.

Seems reasonable to me too. The bit I would argue with in his article is that it would be retrospectively means tested. Where does he think the people entitled to get it free would get the money from to begin with.

I have consistently said on here that lots of pensioners should pay for prescriptions. The prescription prepayment system is only £108.

I think we should pay something towards G.P. visits too, maybe £10, some people ( my brother and his wife for example) are off to the G.P. with the most trivial of problems.

Hi this could be interesting.
Do we have any figures that show how much money would be saved, and including how much the administration would cost including the means testing, collecting money, etc? And would it be decided and paid for before the person went into hospital, during their stay, or the bill sent after they were discharged? Then passed to debt collectors if unpaid? If people don't pay are they not allowed to be admitted to hospital again until they do? It doesn't really sound feasible to me. Back to the old days when folk died because they couldn't afford to ask for medical support.

Do we have full details of how the German system works?

I don't agree that people over 60 should pay for NHS prescriptions -these should be free to everyone in the UK .

The hospital charge sounds reasonable but at £4-£8 would prob be uneconomic to collect for an unplanned short stay. Thin end of wedge.

Re prescription charges, raising the eligibility age would prob be easier, perhaps with further exemptions for those with chronic conditions. And better regulation of the pharmaceutical industry???

The NHS can't carry on as it is. We have pay for it somehow.

What is your solution?

Re prescription charges, raising the eligibility age would prob be easier, perhaps with further exemptions for those with chronic conditions. And better regulation of the pharmaceutical industry???

My thoughts too winterwhite

We don’t have an equivalent healthcare system to Germany, and I don’t see that cherry picking bits of theirs and bolting them will help.

Means testing always costs more than it saves, anyway. Charging for GP visits will just stop ill people going, or delay them going until the cost of treatment is higher than it would have been.

And, of course, ‘paying a token amount’ to improve access has failed with dentistry, so I’d need to see very strong evidence that it wouldn’t do so for other parts of the NHS.

I am m all for having g a wide-ranging, citizen and expert (ie not politicians) led England and Wales wide conversation about the kind of healthcare we want and how it is to be funded, but reports produced in isolation like this aren’t helpful, imo.

HI, there seems to be plenty of money available to the NHS, it needs to be better organised so that we all get best value. Collecting more money via charges isn't the answer - that too will be squandered. And will cost the NHS MORE money unless the full cost of the prescriptions/meals is collected as well as the cost of the administration.

Well, (re What is your solution?), I've already suggested raising the eligibility age in line with the age of retirement.

Higher and fairer taxes (not just income tax) should have been introduced years ago. It is up to those who habitually vote Conservative to explain why they do so knowing and seeing the consequences for public services. Why do they do it?

Consequence of this proposal: none to speak of for the better off, more worry for the just-about-managing, leading, to people not taking their meds regularly. Where does that get us?

I think in Germany one continues to pay health taxes in retirement. As the elderly eat up the largest chunk of NHS funds, I do not see why we stop paying, the rates paid are variable according to income. With young people starting their working life at a later age, there is less time for them to contribute to funds.

Not again ☹

Not everyone is a wealthy pensioner and can afford over £100 for a yearly charge. People will not get essential medicine or have to choose which to have if they have more than one prescription.

I have said for years we should pay something towards our food in hospitals ... as at home we eat & saving when we go into hospital ... even if collected on a voluntary basis , even if only £2-£3 a day ... as long as it went towards the food or nhs itself ... not like a lot of the parking where it doesn't, also could save on heating as much too hot ! Obviously if people couldn't afford to pay , there are exceptions

It will no longer be the NHS as Bevin set it up - free for all at the point of delivery. Perhaps this is an ethos we have to ditch as population grows and medical technology brings new expensive treatment for more conditions.

That does not, however, apply to food. Most people are either earning or on pension or benefits. Since you still receive the benefits whilst in hospital with no food to buy it is not unreasonable to make a payment but the cost of such a system may mean no savings. Additionally where hospital food is bad, and in some cases it is, people will object to paying on those grounds. Perhaps there could be a voluntary system whereby you pay what you think it’s worth.

Millie22

Not again ☹

Not everyone is a wealthy pensioner and can afford over £100 for a yearly charge. People will not get essential medicine or have to choose which to have if they have more than one prescription.

Not all pensioners just the ones who can afford it.

I don't see why means testing is such a thing. Surely, people in receipt of certain benefits would qualify.

Aveline

Seems reasonable to me. As long as it's means tested.

I won't disappoint by not getting on my 'hobby horse' and saying that those who have paid NI for decades and also have saved towards having so-called 'means' in older age should not have to also pay for prescriptions that we expected to be free when we chose to retire.

Pregnant women or women with babies don't pay, so all the pregnant Mumsnetters who say that both they and their husbands each earn over £100k in their 30s would be exempt, but an older couple who have worked as teachers or nurses for decades would have to pay.

Presumably means-tests would apply to household income as usual, so those with two earners would be less likely to qualify, whilst those where one partner had stayed at home would get them free, despite not having contributed two lots of NI.

People with some conditions (eg thyroid disease) don't pay, but those with eg asthma (a life-threatening condition) do - the rationale there is flawed too, as this applies regardless of income.

Why single out over 60s? Far better to means-test income with a progressive tax system, so that everyone pays out of what they earn (and overhaul the system so that profits made for simply having money are counted as income). This would include many pensioners too, but would not penalise people simply for working, contributing and saving towards occupational pensions.

Too many people resent older people having even a little bit of disposable income, even when they themselves are paying a mortgage and saving what they can, presumably with a view to having a rent-free retirement with enough left over to go out for coffee with friends now and again when it's their turn. As ever with means-testing the rich will be ok, the poor will get free prescriptions and it will be the ones 'in the middle' who get hit.

My Dad, a GP, always felt that there should be a small charge for appointments. Really just to reduce the numbers of failed appointments. People with long term conditions need not pay. I used to be appalled at the number of DNAs at GP surgeries when I used to have to book clinics there.
Changed days now of course when you have to beg and plead for an appointment.
We are reaping the whirlwind of reduced places on nursing courses and prioritising lucrative foreign students on medical courses.

Prescription charges were abolished in Scotland years ago. I believe part of the justification was to save money.
The charges didn’t cover the cost of the vast majority of medicines and the cost of the means testing far exceeds the money collected.
It’s the argument I used to have with my mum when the tabloids lead with the “super rich” getting winter fuel payments. Every year she’d get wound up about how this was “stolen out her pocket”. She would willingly have spent millions to save thousands so a mythical “they” wouldn’t get something.
This looks like blaming the end consumer for problems much further up the chain.
Like global warming is because I ( insert latest here, eg don’t rinse tins properly) not because of business decisions made by global corporations.

There two kinds of people in the world.

Those that think the NHS should free at the point of use and that funding should be from the public purse whether you are the Queen or the person who cleans her toilets.

And those that think money is the answer to everything and people should be sanctioned for missing appointments, and that the cost of collecting £4 a day from an as-yet-undefined proportion of hospital residents is in any way a valid response, when what is actually required is an overhaul of the NHS.

Move to Scotland. Prescriptions free at point of need.

I think prescription charges should be means tested or raise the age that they are free to over 66, pension age.

Lots to consider here.
I think Nominal fee to see GP.. So many time wasters. Plus for failed appointments, including Out patients in Hospital.
After so many days in Hospital, set fee means tested. If you have a State pension and in Hospital for more that 4 weeks you are supposed to declare it, as you not "entitled" to it. How many do that?

Prescription charges for under those working or Retirement age, with exceptions for long term conditions, children.

However how much will it cost to recover that money for individuals?
Will it be worth it?

If you have a State pension and in Hospital for more that 4 weeks you are supposed to declare it, as you not "entitled" to it. How many do that?
I don't have a state pension yet, but I didn't know you were supposed to declare it if you are in hospital. Probably a lot of people are also unaware of that. I suppose there is a certain logic in that the State is 'keeping you' when you are in hospital; but how do people pay the rent or other commitments if their income is stopped - outgoings are not restricted to food and/or other things that would be covered in a hospital stay.

volver

There two kinds of people in the world.

Those that think the NHS should free at the point of use and that funding should be from the public purse whether you are the Queen or the person who cleans her toilets.

And those that think money is the answer to everything and people should be sanctioned for missing appointments, and that the cost of collecting £4 a day from an as-yet-undefined proportion of hospital residents is in any way a valid response, when what is actually required is an overhaul of the NHS.

Move to Scotland. Prescriptions free at point of need.

No, please don't all move to Scotland for free prescriptions, lots of you would just start complaining about the weather and you would be shocked by the heating bills. If you'd like the Scottish model for free prescriptions then campaign to get it in your area.

volver, I agree with every word in your post apart from the last line!