Longitudinal research from Insightfully, commissioned by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, found that more than 1 in 5 people have not filled a prescription in the past 3 years due to cost. This figure rises to 1 in 3 in regional Australia. Women, younger people, and those with dependents are most affected.

Pharmacy Guild National Councillor Mario Barone stresses the urgency of addressing this issue.

“We know what happens when people can’t afford their medicine – they get sicker,” he says. “Often there are complications that mean time off work, time in hospital and time recovering.”

Calls for government action 

Mr Barone urges the government to reduce the PBS general co-payment to ease financial pressure on patients.

“This non-inflationary measure would reduce out-of-pocket prescription costs for patients,” he says.

“Community pharmacists see patients struggling to afford their medicine every day.

“The government can, and should, take action to address these challenges and make sure medicine stops being a luxury item.”

Sydney pharmacist Claudia, echoes these concerns, explaining she sees multiple patients each week who are struggling to afford their medication.

“In the past 6 months I’d say 3-4 patients a week are struggling to afford their medication,” she says.

“We had a patient and realised he was only taking 50% of the medications he was meant to be taking just because he couldn’t afford to get all his medications.

“People are having to choose what they can and can’t get.”

Cost of living a top priority

With cost of living ranked as a top priority for voters, followed by healthcare, the Guild is calling on the government to act swiftly to improve medicine affordability.

“Australians are being forced to make tough choices between filling prescriptions and paying the rent, buying groceries and putting petrol in the car.

In the face of this evidence the government must act and make medicine more affordable by reducing the co-payment for general patients,” says Mr Barone.

For more information, visit: affordablemedicines.com.au.

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“The latest data from the Productivity Commission shows there was a 21.7% rise in the number of parents and carers in Australia who didn’t work due to childcare care costs in 2020, compared to the previous year.

“According to those figures, 90,000 Australian parents stayed out of the workforce last year because the cost of childcare was too high.”

Ms Carnell says that currently in Australia, childcare takes “an average of 27% of household income”.

“For women and families in small businesses, particularly those that are relying on JobKeeper or still in the process of recovering from the Covid-19 crisis, childcare is unaffordable,” she says.

Ms Carnell calls on the government to make childcare more affordable by making it “more tax-effective” or “by phasing in an expanded subsidy scheme as recommended by the Grattan Institute, estimated to deliver an $11 billion boost to the economy”.

“Crucially, affordable childcare would allow more [parents and carers] to work on growing their businesses – an important contribution to Australia’s economic recovery,” says Ms Carnell.

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