Prescription charges end in Wales

[mrknowall]

Patients in Wales are now entitled to free prescriptions, on the day the cost rises to �6.85 in the rest of the UK. Prescription charges had been gradually reduced to �3 - but Welsh assembly members voted earlier this year to scrap them altogether from 1 April.

[kazza12345]

i dont know what your question is, but this is the point of devolution ... the need can be decided on less of a national level, and money can be used to decide local priorities, which i think can only be a good thing. Over 70% of prescriptions are free anyway (ie they fall into a qualifying category, although they somtimes seem pretty arbitary)
The actual cost of most drugs is huge compared to the price of a prescription, so those still paying �6.85 are benefitting from subsidis from the govt already. Personally, i would rather see the money spent on something else, and people who need prescriptions pay for them. After all, a pre payment certificate is only about 90 quid for a whole year, and you can have as many prescriptions as you need for that. personally i think 90 pounds is a bargain, and those people on a low income get government benefits to help them anyway

[puck]

Just another example of the Celtic fringe being subsidised by the English Tax payer. Phony Tony trying to break up the United Kingdom of Great Britain to the detriment of England.

[mrknowall]

A family member of mine is on the sick they are getting �57 a week and they have to pay for there Prescriptions.
You dont get free Prescription on Incapacity Benefit

[kazza12345]

no, but incapacity benefit can go towards paying for prescriptions, surely?
by my (amittedly crummy) calculations, a prepayment certificate for the year would be less than 3% of that benefit
Spending 3 % of your earnings on healthare seems pretty good to me

If your family member had to pay the true value of those drugs that they have to use, it would be far far more than this. In some countries in the world people can't afford pain relief, or any medications, and have to make decisions about healthcare worse than that even. i maintain that even at nearly 7 quid, prescriptions are great value for money!

[kazza12345]

personally, i think that th estimate of costing 30 million per year in wales might be an underestimation. I suppose i would rather the money was spent on something else in england than free pescriptions for people who could pay!

[mrknowall]

I do know where your coming from kazza12345 but im not into this one rule for one but not the other.
Depending on where you live.
Many thanks for you comments

[kazza12345]

hey, you're welcome, and thanks ffor taking the answers in the spirit in which they were given. Our society is inherently inequal anyway, I wonder how long it will be before wales are having to reverse the decision cause they cant pay for eveything else they want, anyway, or there's newspaper headlines about not being able to afford bone marrow transplants for kids, or the seemingly universal cry of not having enough money for incubators, or intensive are beds/a and e's having to shut?

[teag1rl]

kazza's hit the nail on the head there. I live in Wales and can't see the point of free perscriptions-it was a vote winner-that's all. They'll soon be crying about not being able to afford this and that. We have to travel into England for cancer treatment already with huge round trips being made for chemotherapy. They will just end up cutting back something else. �90 is nothing really is it?