I fully appreciate the concerns and myself have a question my husband is on the heart lung transplant list he also has suspected cancer mark on face but apparently doesn't cover prescription exemption but never the less as transplant patient who also has blood clots he's not got a lot going in way if good health has had to give up work
He doesn't qualify for prescription exemption and I cannot understand why ???? The man is stressed low morale feels let down He has life threatening condition and yet cannot get help with prescription costs what do u have to do to get fairness and equality
I'm disgusted even the doctors are unhappy at this but as they say clearly the system is wrong
Written by
CAZBERRY59
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I'm sorry your husband is in this awful situation. Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of the NHS of each of our own nations. It may be a National health service, but it's not united across the whole of the United Kingdom. I take it you are in England. If you were in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland all your prescriptions would be free. I live in Wales and when my husband was terminal with cancer we didn't have the worry of the expense of his prescriptions.
Must be nice, SeasideSusie...I live in the US and I'd faint dead away if any of my prescriptions were EVER free....it's ridiculous here as far as health care goes, I believe.....
But we do pay for our health care and prescriptions, it's not actually free. There just happens to be no charge at the point of delivery, we are constantly paying for it. We pay through our taxes and National Insurance Contributions. So from the day we start working we pay taxes, when we retire we pay taxes if our pension reaches a certain limit (and it's not that high) and many of us pay taxes until the day we die, and part of the taxes goes towards funding our National Health Service (NHS).
One of the downsides of our NHS is that we cannot necessarily get the treatment we need, we often have to wait many weeks for an appointment to see a doctor (varies from area to area, surgery to surgery) and we have very little, if any, choice of who we see. If there's only one surgery in the area where you live, that's it, you have to see a doctor there.
Everything is budget driven. It costs money to refer to a specialist so referrals are often refused by the GP. I have a friend whose husband developed balance problems to the point where he couldn't get out of bed, (he'd had a few falls in the street prior to this), if he tried he would fall out. Long story short - many, many, many consultations with the GP resulted in my friend being told to make sure she was there when her husband was getting out of bed so that he didn't fall! In sheer desperation she took her husband down to the surgery and refused to leave until she saw the head of practice and got something done. He was referred for an MRI scan which took place 2 days later and it was discovered he had a brain tumour.
Our NHS is a godsend in some circumstances, but lets us down very badly in others.
On balance, I would still settle for our system, although neither is perfect. , and ours certainly needs some rethinking.
I’ve had friends go through terminal diseases, where eventually both of them had to give up work. At least they didn’t have to worry about the costs of treatment. Even if people are insured in the US, the insurers keep an eye on the budget anyway.
I understand that this reply might not actually help in your husband's case - the precise meaning of "cancer" as against what you have said is "suspected cancer" might be enough to exclude him.
(It wasn't that long ago that cancer was included at all.)
You can apply for a medical exemption certificate if you have one of the following medical conditions:
a permanent fistula (for example, caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy or ileostomy) which needs continuous surgical dressing or an appliance
a form of hypoadrenalism (for example, Addison’s Disease) for which specific substitution therapy is essential
diabetes insipidus and other forms of hypopituitarism
diabetes mellitus, except where treatment is by diet alone
hypoparathyroidism
myasthenia gravis
myxoedema (that is, hypothyroidism which needs thyroid hormone replacement)
epilepsy which needs continuous anticonvulsive therapy
a continuing physical disability which means you cannot go out without the help of another person
cancer and are undergoing treatment for either:
- cancer
- the effects of cancer
- the effects of cancer treatment
These are the only conditions that entitle you to a medical exemption certificate. If you’re not sure about the name of your condition, speak to your doctor.
Again, this might not be of any use, but a prescription prepayment certificate would limit cost to £104 a year (or £29.10 for three months) which can save some people quite a lot.
A prescription prepayment certificate (PPC) lets you get as many NHS prescriptions as you need for a set price.
If you regularly pay prescription charges, a PPC could save you money.
The prescription charge in England is £8.80 per item.
A PPC costs:
£29.10 for 3 months
£104 for 12 months
The quickest way to buy a PPC is to buy it online.
My husband is also on warfarin for life and the cost of medications is quite a lot and he was paying the £27 3 monthly but that has been taken away from him
He worked all his life contributed paying taxes he has never claimed anything by way of benefits he did actually go into work to help out his boss as he felt bad going in the sick
Would he benefit from the PPC Helvella describes ?
Don’t get me wrong, our system is far from perfect, but health benefits in the U.K. are funded by National Insurance, and the nature of most insurance schemes is that we pay out, and generally don’t expect to claim, and even hope we won’t need to. In fact, with the NI scheme, most of us do hope we will be able to claim our state pensions, so will eventually get a considerable benefit.
Yes, automatically if they are on income-related ESA, or the Universal Credit equivalent. If they are on contribution-based ESA, or have a low HOUSEHOLD income but are not claiming benefits for some reason, they may still qualify. nhsbsa.nhs.uk/challenge-pen... (note the precise implementation differs between the U.K. nations, and non-U.K. nationals will need to check eligibility).
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