Jackie Kelly (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister advise the House how the government is strengthening the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to provide life-saving medicines to patients and best value for taxpayers, particularly in my electorate of Lindsay?

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

I thank the member for Lindsay for her question, and I congratulate her on securing federal funding for a new after-hours GP clinic at Nepean Hospital which is opening next Monday. This is more good news from the Howard government for the people of Western Sydney.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is at the heart of Australia’s world-class health system. Since 1996, spending on the PBS has increased by some 148 per cent to over $6 billion in the last financial year and has subsidised some 170 million prescriptions. Since August alone, new drugs worth $250 million a year have been listed on the PBS. Historically, Australia has secured very competitive prices for new drugs, but we have been paying far too much for drugs that have come off patent. For instance, the cost to government of the cholesterol-lowering drug Simvastatin is over $50 in Australia and it is less than $10 in the United Kingdom.

Ten days ago the government announced changes which mean that we should be able to more readily secure new drugs by paying less for existing drugs, and the price to government of many generic drugs will drop by 25 per cent in mid-2008. For about 200 existing drugs priced near or below the copayment, this should mean lower prices for patients too. These changes are very important in securing the long-term sustainability of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. I would like to thank Medicines Australia and particularly the Pharmaceutical Guild for their constructive engagement with the government on this issue. I want to assure the House that this government remains absolutely determined to do whatever is necessary to make our already very good health system even better in the months and years ahead.