A new study in the most recent Australian Health Review has revealed Australians are paying more out of their own pockets for medicines than citizens in many other countries.

Spending on medicines is rising rapidly in Australia, as in most other industrialized countries, said lead researcher Anna Kemp, of the Centre for Health Services Research, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia.

Kemp said this is due to a range of factors, including the aging of populations, increased availability of new medicines and the rise in chronic disease.

"Rising costs put pressure on Governments to find new ways to fund medicines. In Australia a number of policy changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) have resulting in consumers contributing a higher proportion of funding in direct out-of-pocket payments,” she said.

Kemp also said there is evidence that this has resulted in access problems for some consumers, including those on low incomes and the elderly.

"This study compared changes in patients’ out-of-pocket spending on prescription medicines over time, and how spending in Australia compares with other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

"We found that spending on publicly subsidised medicines by Australian patients increased from $16 per person in 1971 to $62 in 2007.

Patient expenditure on all prescription medicines had risen to $134 per person in 2007 (after adjusting for inflation). Out-of-pocket expenditure for Australian patients ranked 4th of 14 OCED countries with universal pharmaceutical subsidies.

Australian patients pay 28% of national pharmaceutical expenditure; more than patients in South Korea (27%), Slovak Republic (26%), Sweden (22%), France, Luxembourg, Japan and Switzerland (17%), Germany (15%), Czech Republic (11%) and Spain (6%), but less than patients in Finland (36%), Denmark (33%) and Poland (34%).

"These findings show that the prescription medicine expenditure of Australian patients has increased substantially over recent years and that compared to other OECD countries, Australian out-of-pocket costs are now in the mid to upper range," Dr Kemp said.

The study is reported in the most recent edition of the Australian Health Review, the peer reviewed journal of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association.