Now that the mix-up over what my dad was charged for his first two Aricept prescriptions has been cleared up (though, perhaps I am being a little anticipative here) I have some idea of how the cost of medicine is managed in Australia.

A packet of twenty-eight Aricept tablets (whether 5 mg or 10 mg, it doesn't matter - who wants to quibble over 5 mg) has a price of $154.18. Multiply that by 24 and you get... a big annual outlay for mum and dad. However, Aricept comes under the Medicare Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and is available to patients who qualify (eg, with a MMSE score of 9 or less) at a far more manageable price of $29.50. Three cheers for socialism!

Even better, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, as part of its mission to repay the debt of war, wrestles this price down to $4.70, even for service personnel and their spouses who were not citizens of Australia during their service. Three cheers for Australia!

The price of $4.70 is a flat price, covering all prescription medicines, and is applied on up to 54 prescriptions per year, after which standard PBS prices apply.

On top of this flat price, veterans receive a fortnightly Pharmaceutical Allowance of $5.80 which is paid regardless of prescription expenses. In my parents' case, therefore, there is theoretically no cost to them being on Aricept, other than that if they were well they could spend their Pharmaceutical Allowance on chocolate, wine or other herbal cures.

The Department of Veteran's Affairs has been preoccupied with the Vietnam War just recently. It commemorates the Australian involvement in Vietnam on 18 August every year, and this year it commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. I have deep reservations about Australia's involvement in this war, many questions about what it is that we are actually commemorating about Long Tan, and qualms about why special medical treatment, housing and so on are reserved for service personnel rather than available to all citizens, and why distinctions are drawn between types of service personnel. Against all this, I find I am very grateful for the way in which the Department makes free medicine available to mum and dad.