Micaela: The costs of taking multiple medicines – Medicines expenses can be high
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Micaela
Female
Age at interview: 38
Number of medicines: 21
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Micaela has found that she has been disadvantaged by recent changes to the PBS.
Ok; well, of course, with the prescription ones, they count towards the PBS Safety Net. However, I've found that for whatever reason, I don't seem to add up to it very quickly, although I think part of it is that they've actually increased that now, so that a single person and a family are at the same level.
So, I have to spend on medicines what a family has to spend on medicines or a couple counts as a family, which I think is completely unfair. They used to have ... it wasn't quite half the amount, if you were single, to families, but now they've actually raised it to the same amount. I know it doesn't seem like much, but on a reduced income, if you're spending ... each month, you're spending on your prescription meds at least ... you've got between $120 and $150 a month, it takes quite a chunk out of ... on a reduced income, it takes quite a chunk out of my income.
The supplements themselves, if I can move onto that, are ... because I've been advised to go for certain brands over others and I have reasonable faith in why I've been advised to do that and some of it you can't avoid them being expensive anyway, I can be spending, you know, $1000 on supplements a month and obviously ... you know, there have been many months where I've had no weekly income. Because I've been sporadically working, I've never qualified for ... there's only been one period in my illness that I've qualified for Sickness Benefits. So, when you don't have a regular income, it really is quite a significant chunk of your wage.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.