Paying for medicine

There has been a discussion today on the Toady programme about paying for prescription medicines.

It seems that because various groups are exempt for age, chronic conditions, and so on, only 11% of all patients actually make a payment contribution to the cost of their medications. This seems unfair on the 11% per cent who are paying, although presumably they are in receipt of working wages and having prescriptions on only an occasional basis.

Someone interviewed suggested that all should pay a figure of something like £1.50 per item, with no exemptions. This would seem to be unfair on those who are not working and who have regular prescriptions involving possibly many items.

I can think of only two advantages generally, - simplifying administration, and discouraging wasteful prescriptions. When anything is free, it tends to be undervalued and wasted, with many drugs thrown away. In addition, there are clearly doctors who prescribe things that arguably should not be on prescription. While in the pharmacy recently, I saw the pharmacist open and display the items, and there were many, of someone whose package was being collected by a neighbour. I noticed aspirins, cheap laxative and, I think, toothpaste.

Surely the better solution would be to make all prescriptions entirely free, as they are or will be in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. At the same time doctors should have to be more accountable for what they prescribe, and some things such as aspirins should not be in the list.
It is a disgrace that in England there are still some payments for prescriptions.