The Real Price of Health: Experiences of Out-of-Pocket Costs in Australia

This study will explore the challenges people experience in managing the affordability of certain health services or medicines.

group Group
Health Experience and Health Services Research
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Current
contact_support Contact
Dr Jane Desborough
Jane.Desborough@anu.edu.au

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About

Despite Australia having a universal health insurance scheme, out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for healthcare and medicines remain relatively high. Individual Australians are the third largest contributor to healthcare financing in Australia behind federal, state and territory governments. Much of this spending is directed at general practice care, specialist outpatient services, pharmaceuticals, diagnostic imaging, pathology and allied health services. This has the potential to create barriers to access at the frontlines of the health system, where the greatest gains from prevention and early intervention can be sourced.

Understanding the impact of OOP costs on the day-to-day lives of people with chronic illness, and in relation to their income level, will provide important new knowledge, and an opportunity to improve the equitable financing of health and healthcare in Australia. This study will explore the challenges people experience in managing the affordability of certain health services or medicines. It will also describe the choices that people make, which are reflective of the value they place on aspects of their health and life. This project aims to:
 
  1. Elucidate how OOP costs of healthcare and medicines are experienced by people with chronic illnesses on low, middle, and high incomes.
  2. Identify the priorities and preferences of people with chronic illnesses on low, middle and high incomes in relation to managing the OOP costs of healthcare and medicines.
  3. Examine and describe the process of consumer engagement in chronic disease research and develop resources to support collaboration between researchers and people living with chronic disease.

Current survey

We are currently conducting a survey exploring people with chronic conditions’ experiences of the out-of-pocket costs of health care and medicines.

If you are interested in taking part in this survey, please follow this

link to the survey and participant information

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Associate Professor Jane Desborough at jane.deborough@anu.edu.au 

Funding

This project is funded the Australian Research Council, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award #DE220100663, The Real Price of Health: Experiences of Out-of-Pocket Costs in Australia.

Project team

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Principle InvestigatorAssociate Researchers
Associate Professor Jane DesboroughDr Danielle Butler
 Professor Rosemary Korda
Other Team MembersMs Hse Di (Sadie) Law
Ms Kamania Butler (Lived experience expert)Dr Anne Parkinson
Dr Vanessa Fanning (Lived experience expert)Ms Shelley Wang
Ms Fiona Hodson (Chronic Pain Australia) 
Dr Elisabeth Huynh (Health economist) 
Ms Samar Ibrahim (Cultural Advisor) 
Ms Jillian Kingsford Smith (Research Officer) 
Ms Julie Veitch (Lived experience expert) 
Ms Leanne Watts (Lived experience expert) 
Ms Mingming Zhou (PhD candidate) 
 

Governance

The Real Price of Health research project is overseen by an Advisory Board, comprised of:
  • Professor Michael Kidd (Director, International Centre for Future Health Systems, University of NSW, Professor of Global Primary Care and Future Health Systems, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford)
  • Dr Elizabeth Deveny (CEO, Consumers Health Forum Australia)
  • Mr Charles Maskell-Knight (health policy expert)
  • Ms Sandie McGavin (lived experience expert)
  • Ms Nadia Owuor (Health Care Consumer Association, ACT)
 

Members