Patient-driven personal importation in the face of cost barriers to care: can we do better?

Australia has a robust public health system that helps to make medicines affordable. However, evidence shows that a significant proportion of Australians still cannot afford medicines prescribed to them and that some patients import medicines from abroad as a result. The strongest predictor of whether patients import medicines is whether they have discussed it with their doctor. In this article we explore options available to patients and physicians for access to unapproved medicines when approved medicines are unaffordable. Although personal importation is the most obvious option, regulation leaves scope for other possibilities. We propose that guidance should be developed to help physicians address cost-related medicine non-adherence in practice and to help them understand their options and how to navigate them at the individual, speciality and professional levels.