UK "Should Abolish NHS Prescriptions"

The UK should abolish National Health Service prescriptions, except forthe poor and the chronically ill, as the current system under which most prescription items are supplied free with only a minority of people paying a charge is pointless and wasteful, says an essay in a new report on drug price regulation, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.

The essay, by Duncan Reekie of the University of the Witwatersrand University, South Africa, says each UK consumer receives 9.5 prescriptions a year on average, covering drugs worth just under L87 ($147.68). Most people could easily pay for this themselves, and it would be more efficient to allow them to do so, he says.

The report, Should Pharmaceutical Prices Be Regulated? mainly assesses the rationale of the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme, which is due to be re-negotiated in 1998. It states that, like all government attempts to regulate industry, the PPRS distorts the industry it regulates. By hindering price flexibility it prevents suppliers from trying out different pricing strategies to establish demand, and by fixing the amounts allowed for R&D in calculating profits, it can either restrict R&D by allowing too little, or encourage wastefulness by allowing too much.