Prescription charges from October.....except for Methdone

mecanoman

"Those in the Long Term Illness Scheme, the Drugs Payment Scheme,
patients receiving services under the Health (Amendment)
Act 1996 and those in the Methadone Treatment Scheme will also be exempt from the charge."

Nice wan Briano! More money for me drugs!

http://news.ie.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=154478135

oppenheimer1

mecanoman wrote: »

"Those in the Long Term Illness Scheme, the Drugs Payment Scheme,
patients receiving services under the Health (Amendment)
Act 1996 and those in the Methadone Treatment Scheme will also be exempt from the charge."

Nice wan Briano! More money for me drugs!

http://news.ie.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=154478135

Well they want to do everything to keep those in treatment in treatment. This is to discourage the OAPs from needlessly filling prescriptions everytime the visit the shops, just because they can.

The NHS charge is £7.20 an item,so 50c isn't bad (admittedly a wider range of exemptions in the UK)

mikemac

the maximum amount payable would be €10 per family per month.

Would this break someone?
Maybe, everyones situation is different.

It's pretty much a nominal charge and doesn't seem to be much.

Anyway, I though this was already in place.
This charge was discussed before, possibly even last year

rumour

feelingstressed wrote: »

Would this break someone?
Maybe, everyones situation is different.

It's pretty much a nominal charge and doesn't seem to be much.

Anyway, I though this was already in place.
This charge was discussed before, possibly even last year

€10 max per month does not seem like alot, but if you have a family and kids its quite easily exceeded. To recover any amount in excess of the max figure you have to wait until the end of the year and claim it back....so in effect your financing someone else's cash flow.

Thats not right. Expect to see a black market developing in drugs. Many people new to ireland are agast at the charges for drugs and bring their own with them or have them sent here.

Kurtosis

rumour wrote: »

Thats not right. Expect to see a black market developing in drugs. Many people new to ireland are agast at the charges for drugs and bring their own with them or have them sent here.

This charge is only for medical card holders who pay nothing for their medicines currently. The tax is being levied by the HSE to try to dissuade such patients from getting unnecessary medicines dispensed.

oppenheimer1

rumour wrote: »

Thats not right. Expect to see a black market developing in drugs. Many people new to ireland are agast at the charges for drugs and bring their own with them or have them sent here.

A black market, are you for real? I cannot see how the black market could undercut a prescription charge of 50c an item. Stop being sensationalist.

MrDarcy

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

Well they want to do everything to keep those in treatment in treatment....

Giving a junkie methadone does not equate with treatment, no more than giving an alcoholic a bottle of scotch could be called treatment.

lmimmfn

I thought this was implemented from January, its about time, it should be a euro

Kurtosis

MrDarcy wrote: »

Giving a junkie methadone does not equate with treatment, no more than giving an alcoholic a bottle of scotch could be called treatment.

I think that's a very ignorant view. While it may not strictly be "treatment", the substitution therapy is about harm reduction. Instead of users injecting tainted heroin with dirty works and risking infection, blood clots and overdose, they take a graduated amount of methadone orally in a medically supervised environment with regular urine testing and monitoring of their situation. FFS, it's not like they're given a litre bottle of methadone to swig and told to come back in a month or something.

Cookie_Monster

feelingstressed wrote: »

Would this break someone?
Maybe, everyones situation is different.

It's pretty much a nominal charge and doesn't seem to be much.

Anyway, I though this was already in place.
This charge was discussed before, possibly even last year

not at the moment. but like every other charge brought in it will increase hugely in coming years. Look at road toll prices or college registration fees and so on

RichardAnd

penguin88 wrote: »

I think that's a very ignorant view. While it may not strictly be "treatment", the substitution therapy is about harm reduction. Instead of users injecting tainted heroin with dirty works and risking infection, blood clots and overdose, they take a graduated amount of methadone orally in a medically supervised environment with regular urine testing and monitoring of their situation. FFS, it's not like they're given a litre bottle of methadone to swig and told to come back in a month or something.

I think his point was that giving the junkies "the metho" doesn't result in less junkies, it simply changes the drug they're using.

Kurtosis

RichardAnd wrote: »

I think his point was that giving the junkies "the metho" doesn't result in less junkies, it simply changes the drug they're using.

Depends what you mean by "junkies". The point I was making is it does not just simply change the drug they're using. They are off heroin and the risk associated with that. They take a measured dose of methadone daily in a supervised environment, they see their doctor weekly to monitor the situation and get a new prescription. Methadone produces far less of a high than heroin and less other effects such as drowsiness, so these people are far more able to work a 9-5 job, contribute to society and live a normal life apart from popping into a pharmacy for 5 minutes a day.

Apologies for the off topic posting, but if such a prescription tax dissuaded people from continuing on methadone, an increase in heroin users would like cost the exchequer more at the end of the day.

Sleepy

While methadone itself is not a treatment for heroin addiction, it's use as a 'cleaner' alternative (any users I've encountered regard it as a 'dirtier' drug than heroin because the come down is harsher) on a graduated degree whereby the user is slowly weaned off their addiction whilst undergoing theraphy etc. is not being carried out just to placate the junkies. It's done because it works for a lot of people. It takes a long time and commitment for someone to get off drugs, and whilst yes, it's their own damn fault they got addicted in the first place, providing state support for those who want to deal with the addiction is a good thing imho.