From an article by one of our members, Brendon McIntosh
www.linkedin.com/pulse/poverty-medicines-health-care-brendon-mcintosh
According to the OECD; 10.3% of New Zealand’s population is living in poverty. To these people, small charges for health care matter; and small indications of the awareness and empathy of health professionals about their situation matter. Small events and policies can make a big impact both on a person’s health and their sense that the health system cares about them and is ‘on their side’.
Despite good intentions, policies can have unintended consequences for those who are struggling to access health care.
In 2013, the NZ Government increased the prescription medicine co-payment from $3 to $5 per item. To most of us this slight increase would not matter, but to those 10.3% living in poverty (and usually more dependent on health care), a $2 increase per item could potentially lead to some detrimental health outcomes.
Last summer; I had the privilege of meeting some of these people who are struggling with the increase. This was a very humbling experience as I was welcomed into these peoples homes and conducted interviews to learn about their experiences with prescription charges. These interviews formed the basis for an article to be published in a medical journal – Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy.
Our research findings aligned with a similar research carried out by Professor Santosh Jatrana, who is now at Deakin University in Australia. From here we sought some media attention to highlight this issue of people missing out on prescription medicines and ending up with a poorer health outcomes. All we got was a 30 second time slot on the Paul Henry show one morning.
Adding to this; the government has recently ‘restructured’ funding of medicines, this has caused further problems and in some cases some Pharmacies have been forced to add a further surcharge on top of the $5 co-payment – imagine what’s going to happen to the 10.3% living in poverty now!
Please share this post so we can get the Politicians attention and give them something to think about over the Christmas break – Yes, prescription charges in New Zealand are low compared to other countries BUT everyone over 13 years old is expected to pay. There is no exemption for people with low incomes and multiple health problems…. wheres the health care equality here!?
www.linkedin.com/in/brendonmcintosh
www.facebook.com/snapchemist
