Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How is the Albanese Labor government's cheaper medicines policy helping Australians lead healthier lives? What obstacles has the government faced in delivering this cost-of-living measure?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Minister for Climate Change and Energy! I don't know what is going on over there, but the House must come to order.

The Treasurer will cease interjecting. I want silence in the House so I can hear from the Minister for Health and Aged Care.

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Government Whip and member for Werriwa for her question. She promised her community cheaper medicines, and we're already delivering on that promise. Just last July, we slashed the amount that pensioners and concession cardholders will pay for all of their medicine needs by 25 per cent to just $5 per week over any given year. To the end of June, 450,000 more pensioners and concession cardholders had already qualified for free medicines for the remainder of 2023 than had qualified at the same time last year. On 1 January, we delivered the biggest cut to the price of medicines in the 75-year history of the PBS, slashing the maximum payment from $42 a script to just $30. I can inform the House that in just the first eight months of that measure $160 million has been saved. That's $160 million back in the pockets of hardworking Australians during a global cost-of-living shock.

On 1 September, almost four million Australians qualified for 60-day scripts for around 100 common medicines used to treat a range of ongoing health conditions. That's two scripts for the price of one, effectively halving the cost of those medicines for almost four million Australians. Two million more Australians will qualify for 60-day scripts next year. That's good for their hip pockets and good for their health.

We continue to put more and more medicines onto the PBS. This month, we listed two new, cutting-edge, life-saving medicines used to treat the blood cancers lymphoma and leukaemia, Onureg and Brukinsa. Before this listing, patients would have had to pay $100,000 and $150,000 respectively just for one course of treatment. But, after this listing, around 1,500 patients will be able to access this treatment at just $30 a script. Mother of three Skye Hollingsworth recently had intensive chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia, or AML. Happily, she is in remission, but, unfortunately, AML often comes back to bite the patient again. With the listing of Onureg, she now has a much better chance of continuing to live cancer free. She said this:

It's incredibly important for peace of mind, and to make sure something is working on my body so I don't need to go through this again.

Cheaper medicine truly does change people's lives.