PRESCRIPTION CHARGES ON MEDICATION TO CONTROL SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS

That this House notes with concern that, unlike people suffering from certain specified conditions such as diabetes insipidus, some thyroid conditions and epilepsy, people suffering from severe mental illnesses (and in particular, people with schizophrenia and manic depression) are not exempt from paying prescription charges even when they require continuous life-long medication to maintain reasonable health and to control a condition for which there is no cure; notes with concern that severe mental illness can frequently lead to suicide and sometimes endangers the lives of others; and calls upon the Government to include severe mental illness among the specified conditions which exempt persons from paying prescription charges for necessary and continuous medication.