{"id":30911,"date":"2024-03-10T15:13:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T09:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/free-prescription-charges-for-people-with-certain-health-conditions-to-be-debated-by-mps-personal-finance-finance\/"},"modified":"2024-03-10T15:13:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T09:43:39","slug":"free-prescription-charges-for-people-with-certain-health-conditions-to-be-debated-by-mps-personal-finance-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/free-prescription-charges-for-people-with-certain-health-conditions-to-be-debated-by-mps-personal-finance-finance\/","title":{"rendered":"Free prescription charges for people with certain health conditions to be debated by MPs | Personal Finance | Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ad_1]\n<\/p>\n

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MPs are set to debate a petition relating to prescription charges for people with chronic or long-term health conditions.<\/p>\n

The petition, which has more than 20,000 signatures, stated: \u201cExtend the criteria for medical exemption certificates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MedEx criteria should include chronic illnesses as acknowledged by the NHS. This includes but is not limited to MS, PCOS, endometriosis, IBD, POTS, depression, anxiety and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n

It argued: \u201cLiving with a chronic condition can be extremely difficult. The symptoms and complications of having chronic diseases often means people have to either give up work or reduce their hours – as a consequence some people may not be able to self-fund their medication.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petitioner further highlighted the prevalence of prescriptions, stating, “I’ve been given 20 different medications this year alone.” They emphasised that chronic or long-term conditions are manageable but not curable, underscoring the importance of ensuring access to treatment regardless of \u201cprivilege\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In its response to the petition, provided on March 2, 2022, the Government said: \u201cWe recognise the impact of chronic illness. 89 percent of prescription items dispensed in the community in England have no charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose not exempt may save money with a prescription prepayment certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the petition closed in August 2022, the Commons Select Committee has announced it will debate the issue on March 11, 2024.<\/p>\n

People will be able to watch the debate live on YouTube at 4.30pm here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Who currently qualifies for free prescriptions?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The following groups can get NHS prescriptions for free:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • People who are under 16<\/li>\n
  • People who are aged 16 to 18 and in full-time education<\/li>\n
  • People who are pregnant or have had a baby in the previous 12 months<\/li>\n
  • People who are registered as disabled and are unable to go out<\/li>\n
  • People who have a war pension exemption certificate<\/li>\n
  • People who are an NHS inpatient<\/li>\n
  • People who receive Income Support<\/li>\n
  • People who receive Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance<\/li>\n
  • People who receive Income-related Employment and Support Allowance<\/li>\n
  • People who receive Pension Credit Guarantee Credit<\/li>\n
  • People who receive Universal Credit (UC) and their earnings during their last assessment period were \u00a3435 or less, or \u00a3935 or less if their UC includes an element for a child or they have limited capability for work<\/li>\n
  • People who own a valid NHS tax credit exemption certificate<\/li>\n
  • People who have a valid NHS certificate for full help with health costs (HC2).<\/li>\n
  • People who have certain illnesses including cancer and epilepsy<\/li>\n
  • People who are aged 60 or over.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    To clarify eligibility, people can use the NHS\u2019s three-minute tool that allows them to check more accurately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \n

    What are petition debates?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Petition debates are ‘general’ debates which allow MPs from all parties to discuss the important issues raised by one or more petitions and put their concerns to Government Ministers.<\/p>\n

    However, petition debates don\u2019t end with a vote to implement the request of a petition.<\/p>\n

    Instead, the aim is to allow MPs to discuss the issues raised and get a response from the Government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [ad_1] MPs are set to debate a petition relating to prescription charges for people with chronic or long-term health conditions. The petition, which has more than 20,000 signatures, stated: \u201cExtend the criteria for medical exemption certificates. \u201cThe MedEx criteria should include chronic illnesses as acknowledged by the NHS. This includes but is not limited to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}