It is true of some types of asthma, though. The inhaler I take needs to be taken twice daily to be fully effective, and skipping days increases the risk of a severe attack and death.
It also affects every facet of my life when my asthma is not controlled with proper medication. I don't think a lot of people on this thread understand what asthma is.
It's not a case of you get a bit wheezy, take an inhaler, and then you're fine. Uncontrolled asthma, i.e., unmedicated or poorly medicated asthma, commonly causes sleep disorders, fatigue, and an inability to concentrate or complete tasks, depression, anxiety, GERD, and obesity, and if left unchecked long enough, can cause permanent damage to the airways. It can also lead to other diseases, such as lung infections and heart complications, and also death.
Which is why I was comparing it to thyroid disease. They are both life-limiting and will eventually cause death when not properly managed, but one has the added bonus of the potential for sudden, acute symptoms leading to death if the correct medication isn't immediately available (and sometimes even when it is). The risk of this rises if preventative medications aren't used consistently.
I'm not sure how one would choose to pay £10 less for heat, as one poster suggested, but I'll try asking OVO if they would mind lowering their prices for me next time I speak to them. If you meant don't heat the house and choose to be cold instead, that would make it worse, not better, because I would then need more inhalers and have a higher risk of infections and death.
I know people are replying as if this is just a me issue, but my question was about people in general, not me specifically. I, specifically, can lend a blue inhaler if I ever really need to.
Again, as I said earlier, the article linked by a PP shows that 54% of asthmatic adults report having skimped on their medication due to costs, so it seems it is a bigger issue than people, myself included when I started this thread, believe.