Prescription charges

Press, 29 March 1982, Page 16

Prescription charges

Sir,—The Minister of Health (Mr Malcolm) seems- to be determined to put the Government out of office with his proposal to introduce a 50 cent charge for each item on a medical practitioner’s prescription. 1 agree with- Mrs Ann Kerens M.P. that this would be the thin edge of the wedge in destroying the public health services introduced over 40

years ago. How long would each item remain at 50c? The charges would be increased at each Budget. Who would suffer the most? — the chronically sick, the elderly, and those with large families. The Minister of Health sets himself up not only as a politician but as a physician, albeit an unqualified one. In a Welfare State most of us who pay taxes regard the proportion of our combined tax spent on health services as an insurance cover against sickness. That is what this hapless Minister must remember. Instead of a 3 per cent cost cut by the Government, we might be better off with a tax increase of 3 per cent, because the Government’s cost cutting will apply to all services, not just health. — Yours etc., R. J. BURNS. March 26, 1982. Sir,—Another disadvantage of Mr Malcolm’s ill-advised “scheme” for taxing every item on doctors’ prescriptions, is that taxpayers will have to support what we in the Royal Navy knew as “bumf-shuf-flers,” another expensive army of “administrators.” Under Parkinson’s Law this army will increase and become more expensive every day.—Yours, etc FRANK CHILTON. March 24, 1982.