Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister advise the House of new medicines the government has listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme? How will affordable access to these medicines improve Australia’s health?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank very much the member for Greenway for her question and I remind her and all other members that the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is an essential part of the overall Medicare system delivering lifesaving and life-enhancing drugs to Australians at affordable prices. But the cost of the PBS—currently more than $6 billion a year—has been growing strongly because new medicines have been able to pass rigorous cost effectiveness scrutiny. That is to say that the health benefits they confer or the extra quality of life they deliver more than justify the taxpayer subsidy.

Since October 2003 there have been more than 300 new listings, adding some $1 billion to the PBS forward estimates. For instance, in December Arimidex was listed on the PBS for the treatment of breast cancer. This is expected to help up to 24,000 people at a cost of $75 million to 2010. This month Vytorin was listed on the PBS to treat people with serious cardiovascular disease. This is expected to help up to 300,000 Australians at a cost of  $156 million by 2010. In April Raptiva will list on the PBS to treat people with severe chronic psoriasis, which is a horribly disfiguring skin disease. This is expected to help up to 17,000 Australians at a cost of $228 million by 2010.

With expenses at this level, obviously the government is always looking at ways to get better value from the PBS, but we certainly will not stint on the drugs that Australians need. The government remains determined to preserve a very strong PBS and to be, as always, the best friend that Medicare has ever had.