Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. How does responsible management of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme deliver affordable medicines to those in need? What new medicines has the government recently listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that will benefit constituents in my electorate of La Trobe?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and I certainly acknowledge his vigorous lobbying on behalf of people with cancer in his electorate. I can tell the House that, thanks to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Australians have affordable access to life-saving and life-enhancing drugs. We all know that PBS spending had been growing at an average rate of about 10 per cent a year since 1996. But, thanks to cost control measures put in place by this government, particularly the 12½ per cent mandatory price cut for the new generics measure, that growth slowed to under three per cent last year. This has meant that there has been some headroom to allow new drugs into the system—in particular, to allow three expensive new listings from 1 October.

The first listing is of the drug Herceptin, which will be available to about 2,000 women with breast cancer at a cost of well over $100 million a year. The second listing is of two drugs, Lantus and Levemir, which will be available to over 100,000 people with diabetes at a cost of up to $40 million a year. The third listing is of cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins, which will be available to an additional 250,000 people at risk of heart disease at a cost of up to $40 million a year.

These new listings will add 0.8 per cent to estimated PBS growth rates over the forward estimates period, but the government is confident that this additional spending is more than justified because of the health outcomes that it will secure. This is just more evidence that you can trust the Howard government with your health care and that the Howard government is more assuredly than ever the best friend that Medicare has ever had.