Pharmacy Daily | Deregulation won’t stop rising costs

REFORM of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) subsidies, not deregulation of pharmacy ownership rules, is needed to reduce out-of-pocket expenses the Pharmacy Guild of Australia believe.

Highlighting the Guild's Affordable Medicines Reform policy (AMR), which calls for the general PBS co-payment to be cut by more than 50% to $19, during a webinar last week, the organisation's National President, Trent Twomey, said action was needed to reduce out-of-pocket costs for Australians.

"The data is very black and white," he said.

"We have the fourth highest out-of-pocket expenses in the OECD - fourth to the US, Canada and Switzerland.

"Need I say it is a deregulated industry and anyone can own pharmacies in those jurisdictions, and they have the highest out-of-pocket expenses.

"So deregulation is not going to make medicines more affordable.

"What is going to make medicines more affordable is the Guild's proposal to reduce the $41.30 - as it is today, or $42.50 as it will be from 01 Jan 2022 - general co-payment down to $19."

Twomey said that while the current PBS model was a good system for supporting access to "new high-cost, low-volume drugs for rare diseases, as is its purpose... its purpose is also to ensure that those high-volume, low-cost medicines that we're using for chronic diseases are also equally affordable for Australians".

"Currently there needs to be an investment in this space," he said.

"AMR will reduce costs on the healthcare systems through better medication adherence.

"Medication misadventure is in the top 10 potientially preventable hospital presentations in every State and Territory according to the Australian Insititute of Health and Welfare."

Meanwhile, Twomey called on pharmacy owners to provide feedback for the Guild Digest by 31 Jan 2022.

"This is our 50th Anniversary edition, we can only make good cases for policy reform, and advocate for reform on your behalf if we've got good data," he said.