Mia: The costs of taking multiple medicines – The impact of reduced work hours and low income
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Mia
Female
Age at interview: 30
Number of medicines: 12
Cultural background: Israeli-Australian
Mia was relieved when a medicine that was not government-subsidised was ineffective, as the cost was too high for her. She just misses out on the PBS Safety Net most years and, although she can afford her medicines, it is money other people her age can spend on other things.
I was initially treated with a steroid taper and then that wasn’t working, I was given mesalazine and another one which for the life of me I can't remember the name of, but it wasn’t PBS approved, I remember that much, and it was $200 a bottle which lasted a month. And so I was thrilled when that didn’t work because I wasn’t sure how I was going to afford that … The cost is horrible.
Each medication, say, is between $30 and $50 for a month I guess is how it works out. So it's not anything I can't manage but that's money that other young people spend on things they enjoy. So as far as that goes and I'm always just under that Medicare Safety Net, I never quite hit it, so I am just spending lots of money on medication and I never get anything back and the health funds don’t cover anything like that. So it's a downside but I guess it could be worse.
There are plenty of other things that I could have to pay for that I don’t. The specialists are expensive. The medication I spend, because I have figured it out, I think the safety net is somewhere around $1000 and one year I was like I'm sure I will reach that and I saved all of my receipts and I came up to somewhere like $850 or something which was quite frustrating. It’s a lot of money for a year really.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.