The listing of new medicines on Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is always welcome news for the patients who will benefit from affordable access to more effective treatments.
These latest listings will make life easier for tens of thousands of Australians with diabetes, and could save the lives over 200 Australian women with cervical cancer who aren’t responding to conventional treatments.
Unfortunately, the Turnbull Government wants to push up the price of all medicines on the PBS, making them more costly, and in some cases unaffordable, for millions of patients.
The Turnbull Government remains committed to Tony Abbott’s 2014 Budget decision to increase PBS co-payments by $5 for general patients and by $0.80 for concessional patients.
At the same time Malcolm Turnbull’s six year Medicare Freeze will drive down bulk billing and increase the cost of seeing a GP.
And Malcolm Turnbull’s cuts to bulk billing payments for Pathology and Diagnostic Imaging will increase the costs of vital scans and tests for millions of patients.
At every step, Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals are determined to increase the cost of health care and dismantle Australia’s universal healthcare system.
That is why Labor committed during the election to ending the Medicare Freeze, to maintaining bulk billing for Pathology and Diagnostic Imaging and to keeping medicines affordable by rejecting Malcolm Turnbull’s plan to hike the price of prescriptions.