Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the:

(a) Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) has assisted generations of Australians to access affordable medicines since its inception by the Chifley Government in 1948; and

(b) longstanding practice of successive governments has been to accept and act on the advice of the independent experts—the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC)—when listing medicines on the PBS;

(2) acknowledges that the Department of Health revealed at Senate estimates hearings that there are more than 20 drugs that this Government will never list on the PBS because pricing negotiations with their manufacturers have broken down;

(3) recognises that there are increasing barriers to Australians accessing affordable medicines, including:

(a) the failure to act on a number of PBAC recommendations;

(b) the affordability of PBS co-payments; and

(c )increasing out of pocket costs to access primary and specialist health care; and

(4) condemns the Government for failing to recognise and address these barriers and calls on the Government to do so as a matter of urgency.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18:35 to 18:45

I move this motion because as a pharmacist, the only pharmacist in this place, I am dismayed by the Minister for Health's shameless politicisation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme by spruiking the listing of new drugs and then claiming the credit. It occurred again this weekend with the long overdue listing of Symdeko, seven months after it was approved. As Niki Savva points out in Plots and Prayers: 'Previous health ministers would release the names of listed drugs en masse during the working week with little fanfare, receiving little or no publicity. Hunt knew how to get attention.'

It is my view that a PBS listing—that is, the subsidising of a medicine—should not be turned into a political stunt or self-promotion event. Listings are in the interest of public health and they matter. They should not be reduced to a photo opportunity for a political agenda. It is worth noting that the minister's public 'announcements' don't deliver a single clinical outcome. These are delivered by the hardworking research scientists, by industry and by clinicians. Other health ministers haven't engaged in this sort of fanfare.

Early in my career, new medicines were routinely listed on the PBS at set intervals. One of my jobs was to make sure the floppy disk had been installed and the PBS updates had been applied in the community pharmacy where I worked. That was it. But if the minister must take credit for each new listing he must also take responsibility for the growing delays and failure to list medications which have been recommended by the independent experts, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. Labor's record on the PBS, unlike that of those opposite, is rock solid. From its introduction by the Chifley government in 1948 in the face of strong opposition, including a High Court challenge, through to the first safety nets of the Hawke Government in 1986, it is something that we on this side of the chamber can be proud of.

When I gave notice of this motion in early September we were aware of some 20 medications that had not been listed, despite having been recommended by the PBAC. Since then the PBAC has made public its recommendations from the July meeting, which took the total number of drugs waiting to be listed by Minister Hunt to almost 60. These are drugs that have been recommended for listing by the independent experts, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, because they stack up on both clinical and cost grounds. Australians who are sick deserve to have a medication which has been approved by the PBAC listed as soon as possible. But this just isn't happening. At the same time the Government's recent budget updates showed a $155 million underspend on the PBS.

The minister's failure to act on PBAC recommendations to list medications in a timely manner or to list them at all is not the only barrier to Australians accessing affordable medicines. The government's own figures show that many Australians don't fill prescriptions because they just can't afford them. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 961,000 people a year delay or avoid taking prescribed medicines due to cost. The rate of people skipping prescriptions is twice as high in the most disadvantaged areas as it is in the least disadvantaged areas, meaning that the cost of medicines is contributing to health inequality in Australia today—and that's assuming that you can see a doctor to get a prescription.

New Medicare figures confirm what Australians already know, that the out-of-pocket cost to see a doctor is higher than ever before. The government's own data shows that the average out-of-pocket cost to see a GP is $39.55, up $10.40 or 36 per cent since the Liberals were elected. The same is true for the cost of seeing a specialist. The average out-of-pocket cost to see a specialist is now $91.50, up a staggering $33.40 or 58 per cent since the Liberals were elected. These costs are pushing household budgets to breaking point. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare—the government's own experts—say that 1.3 million Australians a year delay or avoid Medicare services due to cost. That's just not good enough. It's worth repeating: in a country that prides itself on universal access to health care, over a million people every year can't afford basic essential health care. The minister has repeatedly promised that if a medicine is recommended for listing by the experts, that if a medicine is recommended by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, that he will list it. That is just not true, and it's not good enough. The minister can't spruik drug listings and claim the credit for them. It's not okay.

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