|
In the English NHS charges are made for prescription drugs, and the majority of adults are required to pay them. Charges were abolished in NHS Wales in 2007, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland in 2010 and by NHS Scotland in 2011. In 2010/11, in England, £450m was raised through prescription charges, some 0.5% of the total NHS budget.〔Department of Health Resource Accounts 2010/11〕 ==History== When the National Health Service was established in 1948 all prescriptions were free. The power to make a charge was introduced in the NHS Amendment Act 1949, and proposals for charges were a factor in the resignation of Aneurin Bevan from the Labour Government in 1951. Charges were introduced in 1952, by the Conservative government at a rate of 1 shilling per prescription. There were exemptions for people in receipt of National Assistance, War Disability Pension, children under 16 or at school, and venereal disease patients.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.sochealth.co.uk/national-health-service/access-to-health-care-and-charges/prescription-charges/ )〕 In 1956 the rules were changed so that a charge applied to each item prescribed. In 1961 it was doubled to 2 shillings. Charges were abolished by the Wilson Government on 1 February 1965, only to be reintroduced on 10 June 1968 at a higher rate of 2 shillings and six pence but with a wider range of exemptions. As of 2015, the prescription charge is £8.20.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/healthcosts/pages/prescriptioncosts.aspx )〕 Prescription charges and exemptions are administered by the NHS Business Services Authority. The existing list of medical exemptions is essentially a list of conditions for which long term life saving medication was available in 1968 and has never been revised since. The policy on prescription charges has been dismissed as a "dog's dinner" by the Social Market Foundation who said in 2003 that the current rules on who pays for medicines and who does not are unfair and illogical. In 2007, a survey conducted by Ipsos Mori found that 800,000 people failed to collect a prescription during 2007 due to cost.〔http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/pdf/Prescription%20for%20Change.pdf〕 In 2008 88% of patients in England got prescription charges free.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://abolishprescriptioncharges.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/after-the-concessions-carry-on-campaigning-for-the-abolition-of-prescriptioncharges-in-all-of-the-uk/ )〕 Gordon Brown introduced an exemption for cancer patients in 2009 and had promised free prescriptions for people with long term conditions. Jeremy Hunt announced a scheme to help reduce waste and encourage patients to complete courses of medicine in July 2015. Any drug that costs the NHS more than £20 will be marked with a label stating that they have been “funded by the UK taxpayer” along with the total price that the prescription costs the health service. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prescription charges」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|