Pharmacy Daily | Guild pushes to lower co-payments

A CAMPAIGN to bring down the cost of medicines has been relaunched by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

The Guild's new push of its successful 'Affordable Medicines Now' campaign to reduce the maximum co-payment of PBS medicines from $30 to $19 comes following fresh reports of Australians going without medicines and visits to their healthcare professionals because of the rising cost of living.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics support this by showing that over 700,000 Australians either delayed or went without their prescription medication in the financial year 2021/22.

The Pharmacy Guild National President Trent Twomey says the reports are correlating with what patients are telling their local community pharmacists about medicine affordability.

"Sadly, the recent successive rises in interest rates coupled with high inflation are eating away the gains we made in our campaign which successfully brought down the co-payment from a maximum of $42.50 to $30.

"We have made no secret that we have wanted to go further and reduce the cost by another $11 to bring the maximum co-payment down to just $19, so more Australians can afford medicines for themselves and their families," Twomey said.

He added that the Guild is determined to get the government to listen to its renewed campaign and has deployed resources to ensure its voice is heard.

"We've written to every Federal minister across Australia asking them to back us to help Australians afford their own medicine.

"Both sides of politics say our health is a priority.

"Well, let's see if they are willing to put their money where their mouth is and support a fair reduction to the cost of medicines," Twomey said.

He also said this is just the start of a long campaign to bring the co-payment down further.

"We are prepared to campaign as long as it takes to ensure Australians get a fair go on medicine affordability," Twomey concluded.