Prescription charges abolished in Scotland
Discussion
Story here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12612623
Ok so now the only place in the UK who has to pay for prescriptions is England where they are more than double what they were before they were abolished in Scotland anyway.
Considering that we are constantly being told that we need to cut government spending and when you look at the numbers we clearly do where is the money to pay for this coming from? The only thing I can think of is that is being paid for by the proposed cut in NHS management announced last October. If so then it is a good thing but surely at the moment the point of cutting things is to save money not use it somewhere else immediatly.
Ok so now the only place in the UK who has to pay for prescriptions is England where they are more than double what they were before they were abolished in Scotland anyway.
Considering that we are constantly being told that we need to cut government spending and when you look at the numbers we clearly do where is the money to pay for this coming from? The only thing I can think of is that is being paid for by the proposed cut in NHS management announced last October. If so then it is a good thing but surely at the moment the point of cutting things is to save money not use it somewhere else immediatly.
Deva Link said:
Hardly anyone pays for prescriptions anyway.
People in Wales think free prescriptions are a bad idea as they realise that the money is being taken from other things.
People in Wales think free prescriptions are a bad idea as they realise that the money is being taken from other things.
We have friends in mid Wales and by all accounts it's the schools that have suffered. Powys is apparently £22m in debt yet they're still handing out free prescriptions
Fatman2 said:
We have friends in mid Wales and by all accounts it's the schools that have suffered. Powys is apparently £22m in debt yet they're still handing out free prescriptions
Funk said:
I think it's out of order that we pay and Others don't have to. It's all one big NHS, surely it should either be free for all or paid by all?
It's not all one big NHS. NHS Scotland was set up separately from the NHS in 1947 while NHS Wales became the responsibility of the Welsh Secretary in 1969. The way the Barnett forumula works is the Westminster government allocates X billion to the NHS budget. Scotland then receives about 10% (not quite as simple as percentage of UK population) of this budget but instead of going straight into the NHS Scotland budget, it passes into the general Scotland budget (along with all the funding from Education, Transport, etc) where the Scottish Government decide how much to give to which budget - so we can choose to spend more on Health at the expense of Education etc.As NHS Scotland is run in a different way to the NHS in England, partly because of different circumstances and partly because of politics, you can't make direct comparisons at an overall level - some Scottish services might be better, in other areas we might be worse off than England.
As Fatman2 mentions, it's not as rosy as it seems. Scottish universities are screaming for more funding to compete with England. Obviously it is an election year so none of the parties want to touch the subject with a bargepole but whoever forms the next Scottish Government is going to have make some very unpopular decisions - either let Scottish unis suffer or bring back tuition fees.
To throw another slant on this, I have friends and family that are from the UK but now live in France. They have complementary medical insurance (about 10€ a month) which pays for all thier prescription medication, regardless if an ongoing or new medical complaint.
Considering what they would pay in the UK in NI/Income Tax and prescriptions versus their tax and complementary insurance in France, they are massively better off.
If the UK advocated a similar system, maybe we would not be in such a dire situation.
Considering what they would pay in the UK in NI/Income Tax and prescriptions versus their tax and complementary insurance in France, they are massively better off.
If the UK advocated a similar system, maybe we would not be in such a dire situation.
fergywales said:
To throw another slant on this, I have friends and family that are from the UK but now live in France. They have complementary medical insurance (about 10€ a month) which pays for all thier prescription medication, regardless if an ongoing or new medical complaint.
Considering what they would pay in the UK in NI/Income Tax and prescriptions versus their tax and complementary insurance in France, they are massively better off.
If the UK advocated a similar system, maybe we would not be in such a dire situation.
Considering what they would pay in the UK in NI/Income Tax and prescriptions versus their tax and complementary insurance in France, they are massively better off.
If the UK advocated a similar system, maybe we would not be in such a dire situation.
You can buy a prescription card in the UK for about the same price.Deva Link said:
fergywales said:
To throw another slant on this, I have friends and family that are from the UK but now live in France. They have complementary medical insurance (about 10€ a month) which pays for all thier prescription medication, regardless if an ongoing or new medical complaint.
Considering what they would pay in the UK in NI/Income Tax and prescriptions versus their tax and complementary insurance in France, they are massively better off.
If the UK advocated a similar system, maybe we would not be in such a dire situation.
Considering what they would pay in the UK in NI/Income Tax and prescriptions versus their tax and complementary insurance in France, they are massively better off.
If the UK advocated a similar system, maybe we would not be in such a dire situation.
You can buy a prescription card in the UK for about the same price.
I do not pay for prescriptionsDeva Link said:
You can buy a prescription card in the UK for about the same price.My missus and daughter both have chronic conditions and get roughly £100 worth of medications for less than £10per month with a Pre-Payment Certificate (PPC) https://www.ppa.org.uk/ppa/ppcdd/patient.do
BoRED S2upid said:
Interesting point of view, are your friends teachers? I have a mate whos been a teacher in England and now in Wales and he recons schools in Wales are far better than England.
Nope, they just have their children at a local school. I'm sure they're not all bad but due to funding poor management etc. they have three school years sharing a class with a teacher and 1 assistant.A class spanning 2 years is not that unusual but 3!
Jez m said:
The cynic in me reads that we will be paying extra to cover the shortfall leaving them to get away "scot free"Is anyone actually left in Scotland now? Like Australia and South Africa they all seem to have moved to the South East....
itsnotarace said:
The cynic in me reads that we will be paying extra to cover the shortfall leaving them to get away "scot free"
No, you'll be paying extra so that there is more money to fund other services in England.It's the opposite of Scotland, where other services are being cut (or having to find savings) to fund the 'free' prescriptions.
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