Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6365

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Publication type: news

Govt rejects criticism of PBS prices
The Age (Melbourne) 2006 Oct 26
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Govt-in-secret-PBS-price-hikes-Labor/2006/10/24/1161455708994.html

Full text:

Govt rejects criticism of PBS prices
October 24, 2006 – 3:36PM

There is no evidence patients will miss out because the price of four common Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines has gone up, the government says.

Labor has accused the government of secretly adding the four medicines to a list of drugs that require an additional payment from patients.

Opposition health spokeswoman Julia Gillard said patients were picking up the tab because Health Minister Tony Abbott had failed to get some drug companies to agree to the government’s mandatory price cuts.

The government is trying to slash the cost of the PBS by cutting 12.5 per cent off the amount it pays for prescription medicines when a similar generic product is available.

“But what it failed to do is negotiate those price cuts with drug companies,” Opposition health spokeswoman Julia Gillard said.

“So instead of getting the money out of drug companies they are now getting the money out of patients and they never told you they were going to do that.

“For pensioners and, I think, other low income Australians it may well be the difference between taking those medicines and not being able to afford those medicines.”

She said Labor had been contacted by pensioners who were struggling to afford medicines they needed.

Pensioners normally pay $4.70 for PBS subsidised prescription medicines and other Australians pay $29.50, but patients have to pay extra for some medicines.

One of the medications, the anti-ulcer drug Zantac, had almost doubled in price for pensioners since being added to the list, Ms Gillard said, and the blood pressure treatment Tritace – used by more than 230,000 Australians – had gone up by about 70 per cent.

Pensioners were now paying $8.88 a script for Zantac, up from $4.70, while Tritace had leapt from $4.70 a month to $7.95.

The anti-ulcer treatment Zoton, for pensioners, now had a $3.63 surcharge applied taking it from $4.70 to $8.33 and the cost of the antibiotic Amoxycillin – used by about 56,000 children a year – had increased by 58 cents.

But the government said the Special Patient Contribution arrangements had been around for many years and were not a secret.

“There is no evidence that the application of special patient contributions is causing patients to ‘give up medicine’,” a spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said.

The spokeswoman said no patient needed to be out of pocket over the Special Patient Contribution arrangements.

“For any drug which has a Special Patient Contribution, there is an alternative product listed on the PBS at the co-payment price,” she said.

“Doctors should prescribe a product without a premium wherever clinically appropriate.

“If, for clinical reasons, a drug with a Special Patient Contribution has to be prescribed, doctors should call Medicare Australia to ask for the Special Patient Contribution to be waived.”

The additional payments went to the drug supplier, not the government, the spokeswoman added.

But Ms Gillard said the government should review the policy if it meant Australians were missing out on medicines they needed.

She said a Labor government would have some “tough conversations” with drug companies but would not leave patients in the lurch if they could not reach agreement.

© 2006 AAP