Nhs Prescription Charges

[The Angel Of Death]

Just payed £15 for 2 items silly me thought it was one charge per prescription and not one charge per item

Bad enough being off work sick without beeing robbed for cash you havent got

It wouldnt be so bad but i can bet you they barely cost a pound or two till make in the first place !!!

[Ann]

Do you know that if you have regular medication you can pay for a certificate for up to a year which makes them much, much cheaper than paying everytime you get a prescription?
Ask your chemist for details.

[The Angel Of Death]

Yea wife has one its only once in a blue moon that im that ill i got to go to a dictor just makes you mad the price you pay on top all the tax we get stung for already

[sam]

Yea wife has one its only once in a blue moon that im that ill i got to go to a dictor just makes you mad the price you pay on top all the tax we get stung for already


yeah and the tax we pay goes towards the prescriptions for all the folk on the dole, dont mind for the folks that are actually looking for work but i really grudge paying for those who think they are better off on the dole cos they get it for free, that really makes me mad:mad:

[maverick]

There are only two things garanteed in life and they are DEATH and TAXES....

[pedromcgrory]

i get mine pre paid every quarter as i get 3 inhalers a week works out far cheaper in long run it 32 pound every quarter

[Buttercup]

If you're on Thyroxine you get all prescriptions free, for life, but not all doctors tell you that. You need to get a certificate from the doctor and send it off.

[Fran]

You can get a form HC2 if you are on low wages, to get free prescriptions, or a season ticket which works out quite cheap if you need regular prescriptions. You can get free prescriptions for a number of illneses or if you have a fistula fitted....as do renal patients. There is a list in out patients of hospital or doctors surgeries, dentists, citizens advice bureau or DHSS office or even here on line.

[Naefearjustbeer]

Last time I got a prescription from the quack. I took it to the chemist and he said did I pay, I said yes so he said buy some aspirin then its a lot cheaper. I try and avoid quacks and chemists as much as possible. If I can get a natural remedy for something I will try it first.

[squidge]

I dont pay for my prescriptions because i get thyroxine. I know when i did it was always a worry that i wouldnt be able to pay for medication that i needed because i was skint. I beleive prescriptions should be free for eveyone but in this flawed society we cant do that so free prescriptions should go to those in most need - those with a chronic conditions, unemployed, low incomes, disabled, pensioners and children and those who need life long medication and that will have to do just now.

[sharon]

We should could our blessings that our system than slightly better than other countries! On a recent holiday abroad my son had stitches removed and he had a infection so he was given a prescription for 2 lots of tablets and it cost me 43.25 euros about £32.00 and contacting the insurance company was a nightmare to get this refunded to me, the call centre is in India and they hang up or I get so frustrated I hang up so I have given up trying to get back the £32….. for what we off been free in this country cost me about £150 just to get stitches out!! ( had to pay the doctor a excess fee as well for the tablets)

It’s a unfair that some with a chronic illness you get free prescriptions, what about all the asthmatics on regular meds it’s a life threaten illness and we get nothing free, and I am on 3 different meds to control mines would cost me a few hundred pounds a year just for my regular medication then have the extras like antibiotics and steroids, so I pre paid and it cost me about ninety odd pounds for the year,

[brandy]

UMM just to let you know... that is very lucky...
back home.. you could pay that for one pill and thats generic.
a bottle of antibotics cost upwards of 30 dollars..
and thats the cheap ones..
so dont complain about being ripped off.. the only place ive ever been
where if you are under 18.. have a disease out of work or elderly you get free meds..
also just to let you know.. many people in america have to choose between meds or food.. so think about it before you feel you have been ripped off

[The Angel Of Death]

Silly me brandy here was me thinking it was great to have a National Health Service where we pay taxes towards things
Fair enough over the pond you guys have to pay but there isnt a national health service there the point i was moaning about was paying per item on the prescription

I dont mind paying a set amount in this case £6.65 per prescription if that includes everything if not and we have to pay for each item then why pay anything towards a national health service in the first place ???

[sharon]

a few years ago on morning tv they talked about private prescriptions, you could ask your gp, for the price of the drugs and sometimes they are only pennies where others cost lots more than a prescription charge. i checked this out on my inhalers and one cost about £45 and the other was only £1.50 so i was better off getting nhs precriptions..... i cant remember the ins and outs of it or if you can still do it as this was about 10 years ago.

i seen getting somethings on presription that you can buy over the counter for less.....

[mccaugm]

I dont pay for my prescriptions because i get thyroxine. I know when i did it was always a worry that i wouldnt be able to pay for medication that i needed because i was skint. I beleive prescriptions should be free for eveyone but in this flawed society we cant do that so free prescriptions should go to those in most need - those with a chronic conditions, unemployed, low incomes, disabled, pensioners and children and those who need life long medication and that will have to do just now.

I have a chronic condition which means I need a monthly injection at the doctors, the nurse giving it reckons I should get free prescriptions. When we checked it out _ I still have to pay.

I am now a student...do I still pay prescriptions....I am not sure?

[footie chick]

doesn't look like it
http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=79232006

[j4bberw0ck]

for what we off been free in this country cost me about £150 just to get stitches out!!

"If you think health care is expensive in this country, just wait until you see what it costs when it's free" P J O'Rourke, addressing an American audience. [lol]

[brandy]

are you serious?
we do pay taxes for health care in america as well!
and its not cheap..
not only that but you pay social security taxes ..
and loads of other ones.. and at the end of the day get very little back.
in america those taxes go to social services.. and unless you are a single mom with kids you get nothing.
you have to be well below the poverty line to recive any kind of help.
the elderly the infirm.. nada..
not unless they can prove they are disabled live for a year without income.. and then have about 50 pages of paperwork ok'd
we dont have the dole as you do here..
if you loose your job.. ie lay offs.. you can draw a fraction of your wages for 6 weeks while you are looking activly for a job.. and you have to show concrete proof that you are doing that.. and then after the 6 weeks.. you get nothing.
and you can not sign back up.
if you want private medical insurance you are looking upwards to 800 dollars a month.
went to the dentist before i moved here.. to have my wisdom teeth removed.. was going to cost me 800 dollars.. thats 200 a tooth.
when i moved here went to the dentist.. and was amazed it only cost me 25 pounds a tooth private!
to go to the dr in america.. just to see them.. a consultation.. cost me 65 dollars.. then if anything.. bloodwork or exrays or anything else was needed.. then that of course would be extra..
my cousin had a baby in the past year.. it cost her well over 3000 dollars just to go in deliver naturally spend the night and go home the next day.
so nope no sympathy here..

[j4bberw0ck]

Thank you, brandy, for making part of my point. Nothing's free. I'm not criticising sharon's post, but I think the idea of the NHS being free is part of its great weakness.

Since it's "free" it's funded by "the Government" using "Government money". Ah, that of course, would be taxpayers' money. But since it's spent by the government, the government is in control and obscenities like "postcode prescribing" pop up. Oh, and of course who could overlook the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, which vets drug treatments and gets to decide which drugs are made available to patients by looking at the drugs' "value for money".

Where you draw the line on expenses is difficult, and I'm not wise enough to have the answer, but as long as the system is capable of doing more for illnesses at greater and greater cost the demands wil rise and rise - because after all, it's all free.

Another way in which the NHS being "free" complicates things is that if you want to see a specialist you have to convince your GP. That, and the way the system works means people diagnosed with cancer by a GP can wait weeks for a letter to arrive with an appointment to see a specialist. And weeks, if you have one of many types of cancer, is a huge difference in your chances of survival. In France or Germany, if you're concerned about lumps, bumps or rashes, you go directly to the specialist without the GP being involved. In America, a friend who needed a "lumpectomy" doing was in surgery the day after seeing her GP. A friend here with an aggressive form of the disease waited six weeks for an interview with a specialist and another 3 before surgery. Another friend has a 16 yr old son who was still bedwetting at 14 - causing huge upset and embarrassment for him and a great deal of glee amongst his contemporaries. After years of going to the GP, who repeatedly said the child was "upset" because of the death of his father, and "he'd grow out of it", she packed her E111 and went to France. Paid 25 euro to see a specialist by direct appointment; he examined the boy, did a few simple tests and determined within the hour that he had a congenital problem with the structure of the bladder. Easily fixed, too. The NHS paid for the treatment and the consultation....... the wonders of health tourism.

Because the NHS is, as we all know, free, people treat it as though it's worth just that - nothing. They make appointments and don't turn up or cancel (if they paid $65 an appt you could bet they'd cancel if they didn't need the appt any more). They go to the doctor with trivial complaints which with half an ounce of education they would have have fixed themselves. People go to GPs and demand antibiotics for colds - useless, but I know (and I suspect a good many others do also) a mother of three who every time her kids get a cold, is demanding antibiotics for them. Won't be persuaded otherwise, and the doctor gives in to keep her quiet. And the cycle of MRSA receives another silent boost.

My point wasn't that the US system is a good one. Just that there are hidden costs which aren't about money. The NHS primary objective is looking after the system; patients are a distant second.

[grumpyhippo]

One of the inconsistencies of the system for prescription charges is that certain chronic conditions qualify for free prescriptions and others do not. e.g. Diabetics get all prescriptions free, whether the prescription is for a diabetes related condition or not, whilst someone with long term high blood pressure has to pay for all their treatments including their anti-hypertensives. I have been told of one situation where someone receives a 'two in one' tablet and has to pay a double prescription charge because both active ingredients are available separately but have been prescribed together! Is it any wonder people are confused and frustrated by the system.

[Spirit]

I used to work in a small dispensary and have seen how much some medications actually cost. your right some things do cost just pennies, asprin and the likes however many medications etc are very expensive and I would be far happy paying the NHS prescription charge than £279 for a months worth of pills.
I also agree that the distribution of who gets and who doesn't get free is unfair but we're never gonna please everyone. If all prescription were free then taxes would rise and those who work are still paying for those who are don't.
In many cases when I get a prescription from the doctors , I usually ask the pharmacy if it is available over the counter and the cost. If it's cheaper I forget the prescription. My other half wanted curanail (new stuff advertised on TV) when I asked the chemist they told me it was £18 over the counter and to go to the doctor and get it on prescription.

[sharon]

Yeah the NHS has a lot of faults and it’s over stretched and it only option for majority of us that don’t have lots of cash spare to go private, god we pay enough as it is in taxes!.
it’s the fact of some get free for there illness and others don’t!! If I couldn’t afford to buy my medication my airways would close and would die!! I am a acute asthmatic, but for now is well controlled, I was in intensive care 2 years ago in a bad way and very thankful for the NHS, but if you are a diabetic you get very thing free! even eye care, but what I would like to see from the NHS is if you are on long term medications you should get them free, I wouldn't mind paying for other prescriptions if only I got my asthma related drugs free!

[brandy]

im just wondering why all critical diseases do not get free meds?
i am diabetic and get my insulin for free... i developed gestational diabeties when i became preg and it stayed on..
at the same time.. im still preg!
ive been preg four times in four years.. so not had much in between times i have to say!
i do understand how people get very upset about having to wait to see the dr and expecially specialists!
but at the same time i have seen both sides of this coin
where i grew up .. in the southern states.. its a relativly poor place.
and a ood percentage of the people are below the poverty level.. but yet still can not get medical help.
my mother has chronic lung disease.. asthma.. ostioperosis.. shrinking spine.. crushed vertebre.. and fragile bones..
but yet she could not get medical help.
it took her more than 5 years before she even saw a dr.
becasue she could not afford one.
she ended up having to move in with my granny and caring for my granny.. even with her health..
in a horrible twist of fate.. my stepfather was brutally murdered by a young man he was helping.. and she recieved his social security..
that enabled her to go to the dr. who said.. oh well yes you are in the diabled catagory.. she then had to wait a year with no income.. so she could be signed up for disability..
thankfully my grannies pension was enough to keep them.
now she is on oxegen 4 times a day so many meds.. that if it wasnt for the diability benifits she could never afford..
but on top of that .. they are now trying to cut back all of her benifits..
she recives 800 dollars a month to cover all her bills.. her rent alone is 500 a month. but they are saying that because she recives free medical care that she dosent need the whole 800 dollars.. when she explained that her rent was 500 they told her to find somewhere cheaper to live.
that does not even take into account a light bill water bill food bill..
the poor woman has not had a new outfit in years.
unless it has been bought by one of her children..
we put together what extra money we can and send to her.. so she can have a few luxeries.. like coffee.. and sweets.. you know things that most of us take for granted.
so you can see why i am a sceptic on this subject

[Sporran]

are you serious?
we do pay taxes for health care in america as well!
and its not cheap..
not only that but you pay social security taxes ..
and loads of other ones.. and at the end of the day get very little back.
in america those taxes go to social services.. and unless you are a single mom with kids you get nothing.
you have to be well below the poverty line to recive any kind of help.
the elderly the infirm.. nada..
not unless they can prove they are disabled live for a year without income.. and then have about 50 pages of paperwork ok'd
we dont have the dole as you do here..
if you loose your job.. ie lay offs.. you can draw a fraction of your wages for 6 weeks while you are looking activly for a job.. and you have to show concrete proof that you are doing that.. and then after the 6 weeks.. you get nothing.
and you can not sign back up.
if you want private medical insurance you are looking upwards to 800 dollars a month.
went to the dentist before i moved here.. to have my wisdom teeth removed.. was going to cost me 800 dollars.. thats 200 a tooth.
when i moved here went to the dentist.. and was amazed it only cost me 25 pounds a tooth private!
to go to the dr in america.. just to see them.. a consultation.. cost me 65 dollars.. then if anything.. bloodwork or exrays or anything else was needed.. then that of course would be extra..
my cousin had a baby in the past year.. it cost her well over 3000 dollars just to go in deliver naturally spend the night and go home the next day.
so nope no sympathy here..

I'm with Brandy on this. I'm a Brit married to an American and living in the USA, and the cost of health care in this country is outrageous! She's right that we get we get very little in return for the taxes we pay here. And believe me, the taxes do add up! Every pay cheque, they deduct Federal income tax, Social Security tax, Medicare and and State tax - even from our 17 year old son, who is also a high school student. We ourselves do not benefit from the Medicare tax - my husband has to pay several hundred dollars a month for our family health insurance, which covers 80% of our medical bills and prescriptions. The 80% coverage for a doctor or hospital visit only kicks in after we have paid the annual deductible of a few hundred dollars. Where we live, it costs $120 to see a general practitioner for a routine office visit, so our health insurance pays $96 of it, and we pay $24. Lab test and prescription costs are additional. Even with the insurance picking up 80% of the tab, it cost us $55 for two of our prescriptions last week, and that was the generic brand of the medication. A couple of years ago, I had to have some routine bloodwork done, and was shocked when I was billed for $348. We're not talking about high fallutin' fancy tests - just blood samples taken to be tested for possible diabetes and thyroid problems. I had to fork this out of my own pocket, because we had not yet met the annual insurance deductible.

The elder of our two sons turned 22 this summer, and even though he is a college student, we were told he is no longer covered under our family health insurance. So now he has to pay $160 a month out of his own pocket, for the same kind of coverage he had under our family plan. Yet my husband's premiums did not go down any! Our son works part time as well as going to college, but at $7.50 an hour, he is not exactly a big wage earner, and still has to pay the kind of taxes I listed at the beginning of my post.

[inte]

Coming from a country where you have to pay for everything from the fee for seeing the doctor right down to the needle he has used to give you your injection the benefits of the nhs in this country are immense.Yes the perscriptions are getting dearerand things could be a lot better but on average we are luckier than a lot of others.

[j4bberw0ck]

It';s just a shame that people persist in seeing the NHS as "free". It isn't - not by a long chalk.

For a start, the UK must be one of a few places in the worlkd where you pay for health care at least three times: once in tax, once in charitable donations to allow, say, a doctor's practice to buy a defibrillator (which the NHS should have provided in the first place) and once to have the treatment privately because there's no chance of getting a non-emergency seen to on the NHS.

As far as the US system is concerned, the majority of people have their medical insurance paid by their employer. Not claiming it's perfect, but if you have the cover, it's a wonderful system. If you don't have the cover, but qualify for Medicaid, it's like the NHS. You get what they want to give you, when they want to give it, and wherever you need to travel to receive it.

In France and Germany you compulsorily pay into a part-insurance, part-tax scheme. In return you get the freedom to see any doctor you want, any time. Cancer survival rates are so much higher in France and Germany than in the UK, you'd think we were in Bangladesh or somewhere. Except their rates may be higher than ours, too..... Greece's certainly are.

Anything run by a government is doomed to failure.

[Sporran]

As far as the US system is concerned, the majority of people have their medical insurance paid by their employer. Not claiming it's perfect, but if you have the cover, it's a wonderful system. If you don't have the cover, but qualify for Medicaid, it's like the NHS. You get what they want to give you, when they want to give it, and wherever you need to travel to receive it.

At one time all, or a good portion of a person's medical insurance was paid by their employer in the US, if they were employed full time. I worked in a large medical centre for 10 years in the US, in the 1980s, and one of the perks of the job was full medical insurance coverage for my family and myself. Otherwise, we could have had the same benefits through my husband's job, with his employer paying the majority of the insurance premiums, and my husband making up the difference at a reasonable cost. But by 1990, medical insurance costs in the US started skyrocketing. This meant that though we still had medical coverage through my employer, the medical centre, we also had to pay insurance deductibles, and co-payments for doctor visits. Luckily, I had my last child in 1989, before this came into effect, otherwise we would have had to come up with a few hundred dollars for the short hospital stay I had after giving birth.

Nowadays, the employee has to pay a large sum towards their health insurance premiums, even if their employer still contributes towards it. As I said in my previous post, my husband has to pay several hundred dollars a month towards our family health insurance, even though his employer contributes as well. My job doesn't offer health insurance benefits, and our 22 year old son now has to pay $160 a month to insure himself. If he was working full time, 40 hours a week, his employer would offer him health insurance, with him contributing towards premiums. But they limit the number of full time employees they hire, and our son is busy with college also.

As for Medicaid, it's not as easy to qualify for that as you may think! See what Wikipedia has to say about it here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid#Comparisons_with_Medicare) (You need to read the whole article to see what I mean).

[Blazing Sporrans]

My brother is a doctor, now living and working in Seattle. He originally moved over the pond to be with his wife, who was working over there doing IVF research. He told me that he felt like he was selling out by leaving the NHS, a system that had trained him to a very high standard in his chosen field of neuropathology. Now he is settled in the States and wouldn't change it for the world. Being on the other side of the fence, so to speak, he can look back over here and see what a ramshackle system the NHS in the UK is. Yes the US system costs a lot, however looking at things from his perspective, he realises that the US healthcare system is much better funded and can offer so much more to those that need it.