MEDICINE costs should be dropping rather than going up - that's the call of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia which on Sun urged the Commonwealth Government to drop the prices of medicines in the current cost-of-living crisis.
As of yesterday, the maximum co-payment for PBS listed medicines rose by $1.60 to $31.60 for general patients, and went up by $0.40 to $7.70 for concessional card holders.
The Guild highlighted that this was in contrast to 12 months prior, when prices dropped $12.50 following on from the 'Affordable Medicines Now Campaign'.
It stated that it would like to see the maximum co-payment from PBS medicines drop to just $19.
"Instead of the Commonwealth Government putting the price of medicines up on the 1st of Jan, they should be doing in fact the complete opposite and easing the cost-of-living burden on Australians," Pharmacy Guild's National President, Professor Trent Twomey (pictured), said.
He pointed out that "Australia has the third highest out-of-pocket expenses for essential medicines in the developed world", and added that "we have been calling on this government to reduce the out-of-pocket expenses when it comes to essential healthcare".
Professor Twomey urged the government to act in light of recent research that suggested many Australians were deferring the purchase of medication due to financial constraints brought about by current economic circumstances affecting Australians.
"The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that 1.1 million Australians are delaying, deferring or going without their essential medicines on a weekly and monthly basis," he said. DF
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