LABOR TO ADOPT PBS CHANGES
A Shorten Labor Government will deliver faster access to cheaper medicines by adopting changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
When the Liberals came to power they tried to increase the cost of prescription medicines for all Australians, including pensioners.
Their proposed changes to the PBS co-payment would have forced up the cost of every prescription by $5.
It was Labor that forced the Liberals to dump this horrible plan.
Now – two-and-a-half weeks out from an election – they’re suddenly claiming they want to make drugs cheaper.
You clearly cannot trust this commitment. When it comes to health, the Liberals say one thing before an election and another afterwards.
Labor will however adopt this $308 million proposal.
The Liberals should now follow Labor’s lead and match:
- Labor’s $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund, which fully reverses the Liberal cuts to public hospital funding
- Labor’s $2.3 billion Medicare Cancer Plan, which will deliver better and cheaper care for cancer patients
- Labor’s $2.4 billion Pensioner Dental Plan, giving up to three million older Australians access to free dental care.
Labor has also made an Affordable Medicines Guarantee – a commitment to list every drug recommended by the independent experts.
The Liberals should explain why they have failed to list up to 18 drugs recommended for subsidy on the PBS.
Labor invented Medicare and the PBS and we will also protect and strengthen them.
THURSDAY, 2 MAY 2019