Rising life expectancy and increasing costs of modern pharmaceuticals have placed unprecedented pressure on healthcare budgets. Currently, anyone aged 60 and over in England is entitled to free NHS prescriptions, regardless of their financial circumstances. Critics argue that many individuals in the 60–65 age bracket are still in active employment and can well afford the standard prescription charge. Transitioning this benefit to match the State Pension age of 66, or introducing tighter means-testing, could save hundreds of millions of pounds annually. However, health advocates warn that charging this demographic could deter vulnerable patients from taking essential preventative medications, ultimately leading to higher emergency hospitalisation costs.
Extract C states: ‘Perhaps the time has come to stop free NHS prescriptions for people aged 60 to 65, or to limit them only to those on low incomes?’
Use the extract and your knowledge of economics to evaluate whether the government should continue to provide free NHS prescriptions for all, some or no people aged 60 to 65.
378 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Economics 1.8 The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention in markets, covering 1.8.1 How markets and prices allocate resources, 1.8.2 The meaning of market failure, 1.8.3 Public goods, private goods and quasi-public goods, 1.8.4 Positive and negative externalities in consumption and production, 1.8.5 Merit and demerit goods, 1.8.6 Market imperfections, 1.8.7 Competition policy (A-level only), 1.8.8 Public ownership, privatisation, regulation and deregulation of markets (A-level only), 1.8.9 Government intervention in markets, and 1.8.10 Government failure. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.