Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) changes: mixed response

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has praised the changes but the Doctors’ Reform Society say patients’ needs have been placed behind those of pharmacists, in the immediate response to the Government’s changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

The Government says the changes aim to give Australians continued access to new and expensive medicines while ensuring the PBS remains economically sustainable into the future.

It says that over the next few years, Australia will move to a system where the Government gets better value for many medicines that are coming off-patent. There will be a series of price reductions for these medicines and, over time, the price the Government pays will move closer to the actual price at which these medicines are being supplied.

Patients will continue to have a choice of medicines and to pay only the standard co- payments for a PBS script (currently $4.70 per script for a concession cardholder and $29.50 a script for others). There should be more medicines that cost less than $29.50, which will mean cheaper prices to some patients.

A support package will help pharmacies to adjust to the new arrangements. The package includes increased payments for dispensing medicines plus incentives to take-up electronic health systems and to dispense medicines with no additional charges for patients.

These changes will save more than $580 million over the next four years, growing to $3 billion over the next 10 years.

In response the Doctors’ Reform Society said that the Health Minister’s announcement about decreased costs of generic drugs was a clear indication of the low value the Government puts on the daily financial struggles of patients.

It said the $1.1 billion payout to pharmacists for not passing on those discounts to patients over the last decade could have been passed back to patients.

In contrast, the AMA said the Government had struck the right balance with PBS reform, especially in easing the “draconian conditions and red tape associated with the authority prescription system”, which would affect about 200 drugs.

Overall, the reforms will make new and generic medicines more accessible and affordable for patients, according to the AMA.

The AMA said it was vital that any savings the Government makes from these reforms is ploughed back into the PBS to meet future demand for new and expensive medicines.