Aligning the upper age for NHS prescription charge exemptions with the State Pension age
Aligning the upper age for NHS prescription charge exemptions with the State Pension age
to me it seems like a good idea there are other low income people not exempt. AND IMPORTANTLY if you are on more than 11 pickups a year you can just get a yearly ticket to cover unlimited for a year for price of 11 (there is also a 3 month version for cost of 3 items).
@Jon-H558 They should be free. They are here in Wales.
Universal free prescriptions are a gimmick. The NHS budget is not infinite - every penny that the Senedd chooses to spend on free prescriptions for middle class people who could already afford to pay for them is money that is not being spent on GP surgeries and cancer treatments and hip replacements.
It is almost indefensible to fritter money away on middle class gimmicks when tens of thousands of Welsh patients have to wait for >2 years for
an operation. England, which does not spend its finite NHS budget on universal free prescriptions, does not have the same problem.
It should be free for everyone. Which isn't an option, of course.
It really shouldn't. There's enough pressure on the NHS as it is - I see no reason to add to that by spending finite money on free prescriptions for middle class people who can comfortably afford them, when that money would be much better put to use on sorting out the state of GP availability, reducing hospital waiting lists, etc.