Pharmacy Daily | Medical costs outpacing inflation

PATIENT spending on medical and hospital services is rising three times faster than pharmaceutical products and the consumer price index (CPI), data from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia reveals.

Research conducted by the Guild's Chief Economist found consumer medical expenses have surged by more than 650% since 1987, while patient spending on pharmaceuticals and the CPI increased by between 200% and 250% respectively, in the same time period.

The data highlighted concerns that rising medical costs have impacted patient access to health services, noted in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) Health Expenditure Australia 2017-18 Report (PD yesterday) and on SBS's Insight program on Tue.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has rejected suggestions that medical costs were a key driver of rising out-of-pocket healthcare spending, with National President, Dr Tony Bartone, pointing the finger of blame at pharmacists.

"Medical services are not the highest or even second highest area of expenditure for an individual," he claimed earlier this week.

"The greatest contributor to patient out-of-pocket costs is over the counter medications, vitamins, and health-related products, many of which have no proven efficacy."

A Guild spokesperson refuted Bartone's claims saying, "I am pretty sure consumers are more affected by obligatory unforeseen medical gap costs than they are about discretionary complementary medicine purchases".

The spokesperson noted that the Guild data showed that patient spending on pharmacy items had remained in-line with, or below, CPI growth since 1987, and consistently below CPI since the introduction of PBS Price Disclosure in 2007.

Meanwhile, figures from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO)released yesterday, revealed PBS spending is set to fall by 0.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020/21 and is expected to remain steady at 0.5% of GDP over the medium-term.

The PBO data also forecast continued growth in Medicare spending as a proportion of GDP, when the freeze on indexation is lifted on more Medicare items over the next 18 months.