Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

(—) (): Senator Smith is correct in linking the women's health package, along with other measures, going into cheaper medicines and bulk-billing incentives and the increases we have put in there. New figures released today show that hundreds of thousands of Australian women are already accessing cheaper medicines and better health care, thanks to those measures. Since announcing the women's health package earlier this year, just in the last seven months, more than 365,000 women have accessed more than 715,000 cheaper scripts for oral contraceptives, menopausal hormone therapies and endometriosis treatments listed on the PBS. Before the listings of Yaz, Yasmin and Slinda on the PBS, women were paying about $380 a year for their contraceptives. Now they are paying less than half that, at $126,40, or just $30.80 with a concession card. Before the listing of Estrogel, Prometrium and Estrogel Pro, women might have paid up to $670 a year. They are now paying $31.60 per script. (Time expired)