Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the Government has made medicines cheaper by:

(a) freezing the price of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines in the 2024-25 budget;

(b) delivering the largest price reduction in the 75-year history of the PBS; and

(c) introducing 60-day prescriptions for 184 common medicines;

(2) notes that since 1 July 2022, the Government has approved additional funding for 227 new and amended listings on the PBS, including:

(a) trikafta (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor and ivacaftor) which treats children with cystic fibrosis;

(b) selumetinib (koselugo) which treats symptomatic, inoperable benign nerve tumours in children two years old and over with neurofibromatosis type 1; and

(c) patisiran (onpattro) which treats hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis;

(3) acknowledges that five million Australians have saved more than $456 million on cheaper prescriptions since January 2023; and

(4) notes the Opposition's record of making medicines more expensive and its opposition to the Government's policies to make medicines cheaper for all Australians.

Cheaper medicines have been a win for patients. They've been a win for their hip pockets, for their health and for the wider health system. When meds are cheaper, people are more likely to fill out their scripts and they're more likely to take their medication. In other words, compliance improves dramatically, and there is evidence to back that up. When they take their meds and compliance improves, it's a virtual cycle that spins up—avoidable presentations to emergency departments do not occur. I've seen this time and time again: numerous patients admitted to hospital because they had simply run out of money to take their medications.

In 2020-21—just to give you an idea of the scale of this issue—314 million prescriptions were provided to 17 million Australians. We know now that almost one million Australians take five or more meds a year. That's polypharmacy. It's not necessarily a good thing, but it is the reality we live in. So, for many Australians, taking their medication is a really significant hit to their hip pocket, which is why we have, since the day we took office, focused on making medicines cheaper for Australians and, in doing so, improving compliance and reducing the number of presentations to emergency departments. In July of the year we formed government, 2022, we lowered the PBS safety net threshold. In October that year we reduced the price of 2,000 brands of medicines. In January last year we delivered the largest price reduction in the 75-year history of the PBS.

The PBS, or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, is Australia's national formulary—a list or directory of all the medications we have to provide to the Australian people, all of which have been robustly and rigorously tested and come in at a price point that is not going to bankrupt the country. This PBS is a legacy of the Chifley government. He actually had to take it to a referendum in order to get it done. But the PBS now is a gift to our nation, and it has allowed more and more Australians to receive cheaper meds. When the Liberals left office—after 10 years, I might add—a general med script was $42.50. In that interval they could have reduced the price of medications for Australians. Instead, they didn't. We came in and we brought that down by $12.50. Now a general script is no more than $31.60 for medicines on the PBS. But, if you're a pensioner or concession card holder, you'll pay no more than $7.70. We froze those prices in the May budget such that, for general patients, that price of $31.60 per script will last until the end of next year and, for concession patients, it will go on for another five years. We've frozen those costs.

Not only that—we've also, after some resistance from the pharmacy sector, introduced 60-day scripts. Sixty-day scripts are really important for the one million Australians who are taking five or more medications—in other words, patients with chronic diseases, who are going to be taking these drugs for a lifetime. We introduced this in September last year for 100 medications. A second tranche came in in March this year for another 100 meds, and in September this year it will be another 300 medications. I want to go through what that means for some patients.

On the topic of diseases, we often think of diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia, but in fact there are a host of rare diseases. There are around 7,000 rare diseases that collectively affect two million Australians, both adults and children. One of those diseases is amyloidosis. Amyloidosis is a very rare disease. It affects less than 2,000 Australians per year. In my 26-year career, when I was practising, I've only ever diagnosed it once in a patient. This was a patient who presented late, which is the norm. We have made Onpattro, a medication for a hereditary type of amyloidosis, available to Australian patients. This is a game-changer drug. It can actually slow the disease down, preventing the development of further neuropathy or cardiomyopathy, which can lead to heart failure. It has improved the lives of Australians. It is a rare disease, affecting about 55 patients per year. Those patients would otherwise be paying close to $650,000 per year for this drug, but they will now be getting it for $31.60 per script. These infusions, which they take every three weeks, are an absolute lifesaver. That is what having cheaper medicines means for the Australian people.

See this speech in context