The annual prescription debate

Again in April of this year UK prescription charges are set to rise by the princely sum of 10p, without doubt this will again cause the annual round of complaints from those who consider the rise either too steep, the overall cost too high or that pharmaceuticals should be a free for all situation.

This has long been a bug-bear of mine and a situation who's opponents arguments have always left me somewhat confused. Yes, I agree that this is yet another area where the same section of the population seem to be the ones bearing the brunt of the cost. Those of us who work for a living and struggle to keep our heads above the financial waterline without resorting to claiming benefits of one kind or another, seem always to have to pay up and look happy in this life. The majority of those receiving benefits are entirely entitled to them of course but there is a section of that number who play the system, take little or no responsibility for their own lives and live off the backs of the rest of us.

Why should all prescriptions be free? We pay national insurance contributions certainly but that does not mean that everything should be given to us completely gratis. The NHS struggles as we know only too well, we might have feelings as to how and why that is but in the main it is a matter of underfunding. A large section of the population already receive all drugs free, children, pregnant women, those on benefits or low pay, the elderly and individuals with life threatening illness who rely on their drugs to survive. I appreciate that the list of 'life threatening' conditions could perhaps be revised, I am one of those affected by that particular question but none of the arguments address what I see as the two most fundamental aspects of this situation.

Firstly the NHS does no have a bottomless pit of money whether we like it or not, with modern medical practices and technology becoming so advanced the cost of treatment has risen phenomenally and we all want access to those treatments, somehow the money has to be raised. If we financed the NHS sufficiently to give everyone absolutely everything something else would suffer, in the real world the money has to be sourced somewhere. Secondly, are those who moan so vocally about paying £6.50 per item aware of the true cost of those drugs in most instances? Our doctors and pharmacists have become much improved at prescribing or recommending generic or cheaper alternatives but for in the vast majority of cases the prescription charge is only a fraction of the true cost.

I do not speak without some experience of this situation. I require every month at least four items, one of which could arguably be considered suitable for the list of life saving drugs that should maybe be exempt from charge. My monthly bill for these items is £26 and that assumes I don't need anything extra such as antibiotics for a one off illness. The £26 is not a cost to be sniffed at perhaps but if I were asked to pay the true cost of these items my bill would be over £200 every month! I for one know which option I prefer.

Whilst some may think the NHS charge is too high, if my having to pay what amounts to a small percentage of the true cost helps enable someone else to have for instance life saving surgery, or a child to have the drugs it needs and genuinely can't afford then I'm happy to pay.

We in the UK are luckier than many, we have access to what in the main are excellent medical facilities and yet we do nothing but complain, try telling a family in the third world how hard done by we are! The NHS system does have many inherent problems but would we want the alternative? This is reality and ultimately nothing is free. Go take a look at private medical insurance costs, check out the exclusion clauses or the shortfalls in that system and then tell me that the NHS is a complete failure!