Over at Campaign for an English Parliament there's been a discussion about the Welsh Assembly's plan to bring in free prescriptions for all by 2007. Because the issue of whether free prescriptions is a good idea is way off topic for the CEP pages, I've brought it over here.
Here's my reasons.
Fraud: According to the BBC report, 50% of the population of Wales is eligible for free prescriptions but 89% of all prescriptions are free. Now it's perfectly reasonable to suggest that the exempted groups tend to require more medicines, but it is also true that it is very easy to tick one of the exempt boxes on the back of a prescription and get medicine for free. This ties up a lot of personnel from the NHS Counter Fraud services and more dangerously, help instill the idea that it's okay to cheat the system. Thinking on it though, maybe a patient's access to free prescriptions ought to be part of the Electronic Patient Record and actually printed on the prescription. That would work, but I can't imagine NO2ID liking it.
Overprescription: Because the cost of £6.40 is per item rather than based on the amount of an item, the cost is the same no matter if the doctor is issuing 1 week or 1 month's supply of medicine. Consequently, doctors are more likely to overprescribe than underprescribe, with the result that unused drugs are left, this news report estimates that at £15m per year (I think that might be just the Scotland figure)
Expense: There are many people in this country that live on just over the income threshold for free prescription. Trouble is in many low-paid jobs, no sick pay (beyond SSP) is paid, so to miss work through illness causes them to drop money at just the time they are required to pay extra on medicines. This cannot be fair.
The great thing about devolution is that we can take a look at Wales and see if it works there before embarking on it here.
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