Author Topic: Counting down (Read 3359 times)

Wowbagger · « **on:** 21 January, 2014, 11:52:24 am »

In 155 days I will be 60 and will qualify for free prescriptions.

At the moment the cheapest way for me to buy my drugs (4 prescriptions) is to buy a 3-monthly prepayment certificate and get prescriptions for 2 months at a time. It's cheaper doing it that way than buying an annual prepayment certificate because you get 4 months for the price of 3.

I have just been counting how many tablets I've got. I have enough frolic acid to last me: I am prescribed 1 tablet per day but only take 6 a week as I have been told not to take one the same day as I take my weekly fix of methotrexate. Similarly, I take alendronic acid weekly and have been told only to have 1 calcichew tablet on the same day as the alendronic acid, rather than 2, so I have had a build-up of them.

I'm not sure that buying another prepayment certificate will be cost-effective. Skinflint that I am, I'll have to have a think.

Charlotte · « **Reply #1 on:** 21 January, 2014, 11:55:41 am »

Spreadsheet time!

Plug1n · « **Reply #2 on:** 21 January, 2014, 12:10:12 pm »

Just used a spreadsheet to calculate that I will get there 10 days before you. I didn't realise that meant free drugs:)

Basil · « **Reply #3 on:** 21 January, 2014, 12:20:33 pm »

And free eye tests. And free hearing tests.
I think you have to wait until you're 61 or 62 for a bus pass these days though.

Ningishzidda · « **Reply #4 on:** 21 January, 2014, 12:22:46 pm »

And a bus pass.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #5 on:** 21 January, 2014, 01:26:17 pm »

A bus pass comes in at pension age, whatever you have been relegated to. Mrs. Wow has been cheated of between 5 and 6 years' pension as a result of the changes. She was 60 last October.

Ningishzidda · « **Reply #6 on:** 21 January, 2014, 01:55:05 pm »

Hmmm. Yes.

Checking the West Midlands Centro website, there is a complicated table of birthdays vs eligibility date.
It’s a ‘sliding scale' from the old rules to the new rules.
It ends up being ‘66th Birthday’ in 2021.

Which means when I take early retirement in eighteen months, I’ll have well over a decade to wait for a bus pass.

hellymedic · « **Reply #7 on:** 21 January, 2014, 02:12:55 pm »

Is Folic Acid Prescription only? Can you buy it cheaper off prescription?

red marley · « **Reply #8 on:** 21 January, 2014, 02:15:43 pm »

Wow, you are a GCSE Maths question AICMFP.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #9 on:** 21 January, 2014, 02:37:15 pm »

Quote from: hellymedic on 21 January, 2014, 02:12:55 pm

Is Folic Acid Prescription only? Can you buy it cheaper off prescription?

I don't think you can buy 5mg tablets. Holland and Barrett will sell 500*400mcg tablets for £8. Then you've got to do even more calculations.

Having said that, I won't need any more folic acid until after my 60th, so they don't count.

Quote from: jo on 21 January, 2014, 02:15:43 pm

Wow, you are a GCSE Maths question AICMFP.

Shouldn't that be £7.85?

I will need 3 prescriptions for Feb/March (methotrexate, alendronic acid and calcichew), @ £7.85,=£23.55 and either two or three for April/May. The next time I am due to get tablets is 17th Feb (according to the methotrexate bottle) so then again on or about 14th April (tablets come in 8 week, rather than 2 month, supplies). So I buy another prepayment certificate to coincide with the start of my next batch of methotrexate. I think that should last me until my birthday. The prepayment certificate is £29.10 so its cheaper to buy one of those rather than pay 4*£7.85 for prescriptions. Given that I (typically) get 8 prescriptions in 3 months it saves me more that 50% of my drugs bill were I to pay individually for prescriptions, more if I need, as I did a few weeks ago, some antibiotics to see off a cold.

Conclusion: I buy a 3-monthly certificate next month and that should be the last I pay for my drugs until I die. How cheerful is that?

Kim · « **Reply #10 on:** 21 January, 2014, 02:45:54 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 21 January, 2014, 11:52:24 am

At the moment the cheapest way for me to buy my drugs (4 prescriptions) is to buy a 3-monthly prepayment certificate and get prescriptions for 2 months at a time. It's cheaper doing it that way than buying an annual prepayment certificate because you get 4 months for the price of 3.

I used to play this game (it's especially effective when some of your drug needs are seasonal), but got fed up with inevitably needing a course of antibiotics about three days after a certificate expired (there's a process for ordering a card and getting charges reimbursed, but it's the last thing you need to faff about with when you're ill). I just suck it up and pay the asthma tax annually.

hellymedic · « **Reply #11 on:** 21 January, 2014, 04:38:19 pm »

Folic acid 5mg is prescription only but seems cheap enough (97p/28 tablets basic NHS cost) for a private prescription to make sense.
The price quoted is before any add-ons & mark-ups but it might still merit a chat with your doctor and pharmacist.
The stuff is dirt cheap and it's ridiculous for you to pay over the odds.

TimC · « **Reply #12 on:** 21 January, 2014, 06:46:49 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 21 January, 2014, 01:26:17 pm

A bus pass comes in at pension age, whatever you have been relegated to. Mrs. Wow has been cheated of between 5 and 6 years' pension as a result of the changes. She was 60 last October.

In 1970, roughly when you, me and Mrs Wow were beginning our working lives, life expectancy for men was 68.7 years, and for women it was 75. In 2010, it was 77.8 years for men and 81.9 for women. Given that we paid our National Insurance and taxes for a pension based on the assumption of the lower figures (albeit increased over time), where was the money to come from for the extra 9 years pension payments for men, and 7 for women? How was a working life of ~45 years for men, and ~40 for women able to pay for 13 (male) or 22 (female) years of retirement? How could we continue to justify earlier retirement for women than men?

Ok, the decisions that 'robbed' MrsW of 5 years' pension and retirement benefits could and should have been made earlier, but they were inevitable. Given how rapidly life expectancy has changed since the state pension system began in 1908 (when it was paid at 70, and wasn't for life) - or 1947 in a recognisably modern form - it's surprising that the retirement age stayed as it was for so long.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #13 on:** 21 January, 2014, 06:53:12 pm »

Probably best to retire to POBI for this discussion, Tim, but nothing is inevitable. Governments have decided to plough the nation's resources into other things (Trident, tax rebates for huge corporations, illegal wars, tax cuts for the richest in society, bailing out banks) and the women born in the year up to May 1954 (I think that was the date mentioned on a R4 programme I listened to about this two or three years ago) have been very badly treated.

TimC · « **Reply #14 on:** 21 January, 2014, 08:58:01 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 21 January, 2014, 06:53:12 pm

Probably best to retire to POBI for this discussion, Tim, but nothing is inevitable. Governments have decided to plough the nation's resources into other things (Trident, tax rebates for huge corporations, illegal wars, tax cuts for the richest in society, bailing out banks) and the women born in the year up to May 1954 (I think that was the date mentioned on a R4 programme I listened to about this two or three years ago) have been very badly treated.

Yes, you're right - but I don't go there these days! And yes, government expenditure will always include some really expensive stuff you, me or anyone else feels is inappropriate or is given too high a priority. And the speed of the changes was certainly surprising, but given equality legislation I don't see how there was a choice in that. But at a human level, I do sympathise with MrsWow and all others who've found themselves working for longer than they expected. It'll only be a year extra for me - and I will be compulsorily retired a year before I can take my State Pension. However, I'd happily work an extra decade if I could!

AAO · « **Reply #15 on:** 23 January, 2014, 04:41:21 pm »

We have free prescriptions here in Wales, courtesy of the WAG and the English taxpayer.

phantasmagoriana · « **Reply #16 on:** 23 January, 2014, 09:11:56 pm »

We have free prescriptions in Scotland too.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #17 on:** 10 February, 2014, 10:28:55 am »

Well, I have short-circuited my calculations by phoning the chemist for my repeat prescription and asked if they would do more than 2 months on one prescription. They are going to ask and seem confident that they can. One more 3-month prepayment certificate and that will be it. I reckon I will have pretty well enough to tide me over anyway. The only one which might be short is the methotrexate.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #18 on:** 11 February, 2014, 01:18:09 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 21 January, 2014, 11:52:24 am

I have just been counting how many tablets I've got. I have enough frolic acid to last me: I am prescribed 1 tablet per day but only take 6 a week as I have been told not to take one the same day as I take my weekly fix of methotrexate. Similarly, I take alendronic acid weekly and have been told only to have 1 calcichew tablet on the same day as the alendronic acid, rather than 2, so I have had a build-up of them.

Someone as jolly as you must have more than one frolic a day!

rogerzilla · « **Reply #19 on:** 12 February, 2014, 06:38:33 am »

Wowbagger, are you trying for a baby?

Wowbagger · « **Reply #20 on:** 12 February, 2014, 09:47:57 am »

Well, I practise as often as I can, but for a variety of reasons it just isn't working.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #21 on:** 14 February, 2014, 10:19:27 am »

I renewed my prepayment certificate today and took a large order of medication home in my saddlebag. The one pain in the arse is that the methotrexate, which is the one drug I'm likely to run out of, is such a nasty substance that GPs are only allowed to prescribe a maximum of 8 weeks' supply - or so I'm told. That still leaves me short by a week or two, I think.

Canardly · « **Reply #22 on:** 19 March, 2014, 07:54:27 pm »

Stop wishing your life away old thing.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #23 on:** 20 March, 2014, 02:05:38 am »

Oh, I am not, I assure you! I was quite looking forward to buying my OBR* but since I have just bought a car which costs nothing to run, even that particular gingerbread has lost a little of its gilt. Meanwhile I have had so many colds that I have missed a week or two's methotrexate. One more 8-week prescription will probably see me through to the magic "Liverpool away to Manchester United" (three-score).

Author Topic: Counting down (Read 3359 times)

red marley