Prescription charges

People with Parkinson's in England who work have to pay for their prescriptions, and we know prescription charges are a barrier to people with Parkinson's taking their medication as prescribed.

Unfair exemption list

The Government's medical exemption list says who doesn't have to pay for their prescriptions. This includes groups like children, over 60s, pregnant women and people with some medical conditions - but not Parkinson's.

The list was created almost 50 years ago, and is out of date. It is unacceptable that people with Parkinson's are not included.

The government has done no assessment of the consequences of prescription charges on people with long-term conditions. Yet research we helped conduct (PDF, 220KB) showed that many people with Parkinson's don't take their medication due to cost.

They often take time off work, or end up in hospital. We believe this has a severe financial impact on the health service, and dilutes the money that prescription charges raise.

Also recent research we funded with Crohn's and Colitis UK (PDF, 1MB) shows that scrapping prescription charges for people with these 2 long-term conditions would save the NHS money.

We campaign on this issue as co-chairs of the Prescription Charges Coalition, an alliance of over 40 organisations concerned about the detrimental impact that prescription charges are having on working age people with long-term conditions.

As leaders of the Coalition we are calling for:

• a clear commitment from the government to reform the medical exemption criteria to include all those with long-term conditions
• information to be given routinely to people with long-term conditions about prescription charge exemptions, the prepayment certificate, and the NHS Low Income Scheme

We are on the countdown to the 50th anniversary of the creation of the medical exemption criteria - which was published in June 1968.

The Prescription Charges Coalition is campaigning to reform the criteria and get all people with long-term conditions, including Parkinson's, exempted from prescription charges.

Now we’ve handed our petition in to Downing Street we’re asking you to meet with your MP to gain their support for our campaign. This handy Guide to Lobbying Your MP on Prescription Charges (pdf, 977KB), shares everything you need to know to speak to your MP and get them on board with our campaign.

With your help we can keep this issue high on the agenda and make the case for change.

Keep up to date

To receive campaign updates please subscribe to the Prescription Charges Coalition mailing list. 

You can get more information about the coalition on the Prescription Charges Coalition website or by following them on twitter at @PrescriptionCC.