REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING: The Albanese Labor Government is determined to make sure Australians can access the healthcare they need without worrying about whether they can afford it. It's why we've made significant improvements to access to medicines, including here at the Priceline Pharmacy in Bridgewater, where I'm joined by Geoff Hope – he's the owner of this premises – along with incredible staff who work hard every day to make sure that patients in this community can access the healthcare they need with a friendly smile.
Since coming to office in 2022, the Labor Government has made significant changes to the costs of medicines because we know that for many people, they were putting off getting access to the medicines they need because they couldn’t afford it. When you think about the cost of living and the struggle people might be facing balancing their budget for grocery items, fuel, and then on top of that, healthcare, what we didn’t want to see is people putting off getting access to the medicines they need so they can stay well. And that’s why we lowered the cost of medicines in 2022.
What that’s seen here in Tasmania since that time is a saving to Tasmanians who are using the PBS $9.8 million. And on top of that, lowering the threshold for the PBS safety net has seen a saving since that change came into effect of around $20 million. These are significant changes that have helped Tasmanians access the medicines they need at a lower cost.
What we’ve also done from 1 January this year is lower the cost of medicines even further. The cost of a script on the PBS is now just $25 or $7.70 for concession card holders. This is already making a massive difference. What we saw over the course of this government until the change that came into effect on 1 January this year was already a significant saving for hundreds of thousands of Tasmanians through being able to access cheaper medicines. But from 1 January this year, we’re seeing a difference that’s helped Tasmanians choose the medicines that they need without having to worry if they have to put off getting the grocery items or putting fuel in their car. What we all want to see is Tasmanians being able to access the healthcare they deserve at their local pharmacy, at their local Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, at their local GP without the worry of whether they can afford it.
I'm going to ask Geoff to say a few words about what he has seen from patients who've presented here to this pharmacy accessing medicines and, in some cases, being able to do that for the first time without the worry of how they're going to find the money to afford it.
GEOFF HOPE, BRIDGEWATER PRICELINE PHARMACY: Well, in our pharmacy here every day, we see the impacts of the out-of-pocket expenses for medications, and that can affect a lot of people in this community. So to have the drop in price on PBS medications really does have a positive effect on people making that choice between medicines and other essentials. So it's been a really positive and exciting thing for us to have not only more medicines put onto the PBS but have them at a much more affordable level. We try and spend as much time as possible making people here as healthy as we can, and it's been amazing to see people come in and be able to have all the medications that they've been prescribed.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned that it eases a lot of pressure for people coming in. I guess, do you have a rough number of how many people have made the most of all these PBS medicines since January?
HOPE: I don't know if I could put a number on it, but it's a conversation that we have multiple times every day, is around the cost of medication. So, I would think it would be quite a significant number of people who would notice the difference now. It has, for years, been a conversation we have every day when someone brings in a prescription. How much is this going to cost me? And to be able to say, it's less now than what it was, has been amazing.
JOURNALIST: From a health perspective, Geoff, I guess, just how much stress does this ease for patients knowing that they're not going to be so out of pocket when they're getting these medicines?
HOPE: It's great. I mean, it really does play on people's minds, the fact that they might be choosing one essential over another. And a lot of the conditions that we see here are chronic and serious conditions. So, to be able to be treated and to take their medications as they should be, it really does help people's state of mind as far as looking after their health.
JOURNALIST: Can you just talk us through some of those conditions that you're seeing most commonly in the pharmacy?
HOPE: Certainly, we see a lot of diabetes, hypertension, asthma and those sorts of chronic obstructive airway diseases. There's a whole range really of chronic pain as well that a lot of people have here. So there's a whole range of conditions that you know a large number of the community would be affected by.
JOURNALIST: How many people have accessed the PBS since January in terms of how successful it's been? I know there was a big emphasis on women's health as well. Can you just talk about that?
WHITE: Yeah, of course. I don't have figures for you from 1 January this year. Obviously, it's only 27 January, but I'm happy to share an update with you in a few months’ time and we've got some more data. But we do know here in Tasmania, there are hundreds of thousands of people who access the PBS every year. About 105,000 people access regular scripts, so they will now only be $25 per script. And about 177,000 concession cardholders access the reduced price scripts of $7.70, and that price has been frozen until 2030. So we do know that this will benefit hundreds of thousands of Tasmanians who will access medicines every year at a much cheaper price because of the changes we introduced from 1 January.
JOURNALIST: And I guess with the Tassie’s aging population, just how important is something like this for Tasmania?
WHITE: We know that there are many Tasmanians who are dealing with health complications, chronic health conditions, and who need access to medicine so that they can live their life and live a quality life, and that's why we've been so determined to lower the cost of medicines for all Australians. But this will particularly benefit people who are living with chronic health conditions, who might be aging and have a number of medicines that they need to take. And this is also an important reason why we have lowered the threshold for the PBS Safety Net, which has already benefited hundreds of thousands of Tasmanians since that was introduced and a saving of $20.5 million since that came into effect in September 2023. And that will of course benefit a lot of older Tasmanians who are managing multiple medications and hitting that safety net much sooner, meaning that they then get medicines for free under the PBS.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned before that they're saving between $10 million and $20 million all up. I guess, for a single person, do you roughly know how much they would save annually? Is it around like $500 or…?
WHITE: It would be hard to quantify accurately because of the fact that people have multiple scripts. But what I could say is that when Labor came to government in 2022, the cost of a script on the PBS was over $40. From 1 January this year, it is just $25. And if you have got a concession card, it's $7.70. So we've already significantly reduced the price of medicines on the PBS since coming to government. And if you are getting a script filled multiple times a month or a year, then of course, there's a massive cost benefit to you there, which means that you can put that money towards other household items that you might need to balance in your daily budget.