E-DRUG: Australian PBS scripts plunge 'shows poor can't afford medicine'
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Australian PBS scripts plunge 'shows poor can't afford medicine'
By Misha Schubert
May 29, 2006
A DRAMATIC drop in the number of prescriptions being filled each year
has sparked a political fight over whether price increases have stopped
poor Australians from buying essential medicines.
The latest official data reveals a stark plunge in the number of scripts
filled since the Howard Government upped patient co-payments, tinkered
with the medicines safety net and began charging a "Special Patient
Contribution" for some brand-name drugs.
Almost two million fewer scripts were filled in 2005 than in 2004.
Figures for the current financial year tip an even steeper fall in the
first half of this year — patients would have to fill a hefty 30 million
prescriptions in the next two months to match last year's level.
A spokeswoman for shadow health minister Julia Gillard said the
Government's changes had led to a situation where "poor, chronically ill
people in our community can't afford to get the medicines they need".
Ms Gillard later accused the Howard Government of waging war on the
$6-billion-a-year Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, saying spending over
the current financial year to date had grown by just 1.6 per cent — well
below the level of medical inflation.
"With an increasing population as well as an ageing population, it is
irrational to argue that people in our community would be requiring
fewer medicines," she said.
But a spokeswoman for Health Minister Tony Abbott argued that doctors
had changed their prescribing patterns to offer patients more
alternative therapies to medicine.
"A decrease in the growth rate of the PBS isn't necessarily a bad news
story," she said.
"We have been making quite a big effort to ensure drugs are prescribed
and used appropriately — things like encouraging doctors to give
lifestyle scripts that prescribe better exercise, improving their diet
or giving up smoking instead of taking cholesterol-lowering drugs."
Talks have begun between Mr Abbott and the pharmaceutical industry about
further reforms to the subsidised medicines scheme.
The PBS is the envy of many developed nations for its ability to deliver
a wide range of new medicines to consumers while keeping a lid on the
cost to taxpayers.
The industry has been campaigning hard for the Government to create more
"head-room" in the scheme by finding cost savings to fund the next
generation of expensive medicines that are beginning to become available.
The pharmaceutical industry said growth in the PBS was now
"flat-lining", saying the spending fall of the past 15 months was a
pattern unique in the scheme's history.
But Medicines Australia chief executive Kieran Schneemann warned that
any further changes to the scheme must be led by "health outcomes, not a
savings tool".
"Growth in the PBS will not exceed the inflation rate any time soon," he
said.
For the past few years, Treasurer Peter Costello has warned that the
costs of the PBS must be reined in to cope with the impending pressure
of massive health spending once the baby boomers reach their twilight years.