Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2023

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Polimeni M.
Patients 'to cover expenses'
Sun Herald 2005 Aug 3
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16141092%5E29277,00.html

Keywords:
PBS MRAs Delaat

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments: This article is about a recent speech to the National Press Club by Will Delaat, chairman of Medicines Australia.
For a start, ‘Medicines Australia’ is an egregious misnomer, refering as it does to what is essentially a branch office representing largely American and European pharmaceutical manufacturing firms.
And then there is the mock concern for the future of the PBS- when all the time the speech is working towards the notion of dismantling the PBS which MA sees as an impediment to profit making. MA would like to see the collective bargaining power of the Australian people in relation to the wholesale purchase price of pharmaceuticals (as curently represented by the PBS) dismantled, fragmented and replaced by a user pays system in which MA will have much greater capacity to increase prices.
The extent of the loathing of Big Pharma for the PBS is enhanced by the success of the PBS in controlling pharmaceutical costs and by its potential to act as a role model for other countries which are struggling to find suitable counter-measures to deal with high medication costs.
Dont be fooled by Mr Delaat’s crocodile tears for the PBS.

Full text:

Patients ‘to cover medial costs’
By Melissa Polimeni
August 03, 2005

AUSTRALIANS should pay their medical expenses through
superannuation-style accounts, in a new approach to funding healthcare,
the peak body for the nation’s drug companies says.

Australia should consider introducing medical savings accounts (MSAs),
in which taxpayers would deposit money to pay for healthcare, Medicines
Australia chairman Will Delaat said today.

“They are, in essence, an alternative to private health insurance, and
would enable people to build up their own savings to pay for health
expenses rather than paying premiums in exchange for health cover,” Mr
Delaat told the National Press Club.

He said it was time for a new approach to financing healthcare in
Australia, but he denied such a system would undermine Medicare or
result in sick, low-income earners missing life-saving treatment.

“For a medical savings account program to offer universal benefit, it
would need to be complemented by a safety net system for poorer people
and to support people who incur catastrophic health costs,” Mr Delaat said.

He was confident the Government would be willing to adopt a system that
would effectively encourage Australians to stay healthy – with excess
MSA money, theirs to enjoy.

“The message is to live well … and, for your own benefit and the
advancement of the nation, to maintain an active, productive
capability,” Mr Delaat said.

MSAs would be similar to a bank account, with any savings accumulated at
the end of each year to be kept for future use, he said.

A report conducted for Medicines Australia by the Allen Consulting Group
found the system had proven effective overseas, but individual savings
were generally not enough to cover costs associated with severe or
chronic conditions.

The introduction of such a scheme should be considered alongside
parallel reforms to the health system and Medicare itself, the report found.

Mr Delaat also called for major reform of the Pharmaceutical Benefits
Scheme (PBS) to cater for an ageing population and the escalating costs
of medicines in the future.

“It is not that we believe there is any crisis in the scheme – there
isn’t – but we do need reform to ensure Australians will have access to
new medicines for the next 50 years,” he said.

Medicines Australia had been working with the National Centre for Social
and Economic Modelling, looking at restructuring co-payments for PBS
drugs, Mr Delaat said.

Options included differential co-payments based on national health
priority status, means-tested co-payments, and co-payments indexed on
PBS growth, he said.

“We keep trying to fix the shortcomings of the PBS with band-aid
measures,” Mr Delaat said.

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott’s major election commitment to cut
PBS payments for brand-name drugs by 12.5 per cent when a similar
generic entered the market has already been diluted several times this year.

Some drug manufacturers refused to accept the cuts, while one company,
Pfizer, was granted an exemption with its cholesterol-lowering drug
Lipitor, costing the Government $237 million.
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