BBC News Online
A public consultation on plans to scrap the prescription charge in Scotland has been launched by an MSP.
Lothians Socialist MSP Colin Fox said the cost forces many patients to go without vital treatment.
He said it also undermines the NHS's founding principle of free health care at the point of need.
Mr Fox now wants MSPs to follow the Welsh Assembly, which will phase out charges by 2007 at an estimated cost of £31m a year.