Payment for prescriptions

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.

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.

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

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

What is your solution?

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???

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 .

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.

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'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. As long as it's means tested.