PBS medicine has a new lower cost as of today, thanks to legislation passed last year to lower the maximum cost from $42.50 to $30.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s National President, Professor Trent Twomey said this change in cost will assist the 19 million people who have struggled to fill their scripts.
“In 2019-20 we learnt that 900,000 Australian patients did not get a script filled because they could not afford it,” he said.
“As health professionals, this disturbed us immensely and led to our ‘Affordable Medicines Now’ campaign which pressured both parties to commit to lowering the cost of PBS medicines in the lead up to the last election.”
After this success for patients who take PBS medication, the Pharmacy Guild want to continue to improve the accessibility of this medicine.
“We are now pushing to lower the maximum co-payment of PBS medicines even further, to $19,” he said.
“Reducing the maximum co-payment to $19 will mean an additional 30% of PBS medicines are covered.”