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Prescriptions » Allergy
Prescriptions: Belfast: Prescription fee to tax the sick is morally wrong. So, while the rest of the UK is moving away from taxing the sick, our health minister decides now is the time to reverse his party's pre-election pledge on prescription charges and undo one of his party's major achievements. Edwin Poots, whose party claimed not six months ago that there were more than sufficient funds for the health budget, now appears to be unsure, seeking to charge for everything and anything: prescriptions, hospital car-parking, caesareans and more. Mr Poots' plan, if there actually is one, appears to revolve around the discredited notion that ability to pay should dictate your access to treatment. Now, clearly, with the increase in the medicine budget, there is a need to address waste. But there appears to be no recognition that a much wiser approach to charging for medication would be to limit free prescriptions to prescription-only drugs. Limit drugs, not people or conditions.
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