The aim of the paper is to shed some light on consumers' attitudes to adopting strategies to contain the cost of medication. Using micro-data from an ad hoc survey conducted in Italy and the UK, several hypotheses are tested regarding patients' decision-making behavior and how it is influenced...

Prescriptions account for around 10% of UK National Health Service (NHS) expenditures. In an effort to control costs and to recoup expenditures government imposed prescription charges in 1951. Before their temporary abolition in 1965, charge income covered about 20% of costs. But both the charge...