Lucy recently explained to me the UK Prescription plan. I wanted to share it with everyone.
“The insurance plan element is the National Health Service.
The way it works at the moment is that a doctor can prescribe a range of basic gluten free foods (pasta, bread, crackers, sweet biscuits, pizza bases, flour) from a list of approved suppliers. This is one reason why it is good to get a ‘proper’ diagnosis of CD, at least here in the UK. (You can also buy gluten free food from supermarkets and so on).
We take the prescriptions to the pharmacist, who swops the paper for the goods.
Some groups of people don’t have to pay the pharmacist for the prescribed goods (including these gluten free things), and this includes children under 16 (under 19 if in fulltime education).
The bill for the prescribed goods is covered by central government, and is therefore paid for by the taxpayer.
So, once you have your diagnosis, it is possible to get a basic range of gluten free goods from the National Health Service. If you qualify, these will be free; otherwise it is worth buying a ’season-ticket’ which will give you a discount on the cost.
The range of items a doctor can prescribe is limited, and doesn’t include anything fancy. There are suggested amounts to be prescribed depending on the person’s age. Sometimes we hear of doctors who are unwilling to prescribe - and there is a lot of discussion at the moment about how the NHS can continue to afford this. If it does prove to be 1 in 100 who are coeliac, this definitely isn’t going to be affordable for government to continue to cover these costs. The argument is, though, that keeping coeliacs healthy and complying with the gluten free diet will reduce future costs to the NHS.
For my daughter, we usually ask for bread rolls, pasta, pizza bases and flour.”
I find it very sad that our government or even medical professionals do not take Celiac more seriously. Yes, it is better then it was but it still has a long way to go. I think about families on very limited incomes trying to survive being Gluten Free. Being on a gluten free diet can cut into a budget quickly and for many of us we have very limited budgets. It is especially expensive if you don’t live near any large cities then you depend on mail order and on top of the expensive products you end up paying shipping on your products. I hope that one day (soon) things will improve in this country.
If you are interested in looking at the UK Prescription list click here.
Tags: Gluten Free, Insurance
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