Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Spence for his question—a terrific new advocate, for the northern suburbs of the great city of Adelaide, arguing for better health care, making it easier to see a doctor, and cheaper medicines, which increasingly have become unaffordable in this country.

This morning, as the Prime Minister has said, we introduced legislation to implement one of our key election commitments: to slash the price of medicines for millions of Australians and improve their health at the same time. For the first time in the 75-year history of the PBS, the price of medicines will actually fall by almost one-third for general patients. From 1 January the maximum cost for PBS medicines will fall from $42.50 a script down to just $30, delivering savings immediately to more than 3½ million Australians. For a patient filling two scripts a month, that's a saving of $300 a year; for a family with three or four scripts a month, a saving of maybe $450 or even $600 a year.

As the Prime Minister said, this morning we met Greg—a terrific fellow who told us about his family experiences at the Capital Chemist down the hill in Kingston, a terrific pharmacy run by Sandra, where, I must say, the Prime Minister and I were able to stock up on some of the vitamins and supplements that middle-aged men like us need to get going every day. Greg told us—

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