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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The National Health Amendment (Supporting Patient Access to Cheaper Medicines and Other Measures) Bill 2024 will support a strong pharmacy sector, deliver cheaper medicines and better patient outcomes through expanded pharmacy services right across the country.

The Albanese government very proudly has already saved Australians more than $370 million on the cost of their medicines.

This bill supports implementation of the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement (8CPA) reached between the Australian government and the Pharmacy Guild.

Negotiations for the 8CPA began in August 2023, and the agreement has been developed following over 100 meetings with more than 20 stakeholder organisations with an interest in better health for Australians through cheaper medicines.

The 8CPA supports the objectives of the National Medicines Policy—equitable, timely, safe and reliable access to medicines and related services, at a cost that individuals and the community can afford.

It will provide pharmacies with predictable remuneration to support a sustainable, efficient, and effective network of community pharmacies across the country.

This bill delivers key elements of the 8CPA, including establishing an additional community supply support (ACSS) payment for eligible supplies of pharmaceutical benefits made by approved pharmacists.

The new ACSS payment will be paid to approved pharmacists separate to the existing Commonwealth price based mechanism for payments on dispensing pharmaceutical benefits.

This will provide a means through which the Commonwealth is able to provide the necessary level of financial support to community pharmacies for the dispensing of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines, without increasing the costs of medicines for some patients.

The government is also replacing the optional $1 discount with a $1 reduction in the PBS co-payment for all patients.

The optional $1 discount was failing to drive competition and make medicines cheaper for most prescriptions at most pharmacies. It was particularly failing for patients outside of the inner cities.

The vast majority of people did not get the existing optional $1 discount—around four in five subsidised prescriptions were not discounted in 2023.

Of the scripts that were discounted, 76 per cent went to patients in the inner cities.

Outside of the inner cities, only one in seven subsidised prescriptions had the $1 discount applied.

Patients cannot take advantage of the $1 discount if there is just one pharmacy in town and no price competition.

The independent Review of Pharmacy Remuneration and Regulation in 2017 recommended the former government abolish the $1 discount for this very reason: it worsens inequities, it does not address them.

The former government ignored this recommendation and allowed these inequities to continue.

The independent review said this: 'If the government considers that lower copayments are desirable, they should lower them for all consumers, with appropriate remuneration provided to pharmacies for dispensing.'

That is exactly what we are doing: we will make medicines cheaper on every script at every pharmacy and in every community, as we phase out the measure that currently only benefits some.

This will be achieved by freezing indexation of patient co-payments. There will be a one-year freeze in indexation of the PBS general patient maximum co-payment and a five-year freeze in indexation of the PBS concessional patient co-payment.

This will mean that the cost of PBS medicines will stay lower for longer, instead of rising with inflation. This will help Australians with cost-of-living pressures, and help people to keep taking their necessary medicines.

Going forward, all patients will have more equitable access to cheaper medicines, particularly those in rural and remote areas whose access to pharmacies offering the optional $1 discount has been very limited.

We are committed to ensuring that all Australians are able to access high-quality health care. This includes timely, reliable and affordable access to necessary medicines through the PBS, supported by the reforms in this bill.

In closing, I thank the negotiating teams from my department for their extraordinary work, as well as the negotiating team led by Anthony Tassone from the Pharmacy Guild, who also worked to deliver this very good outcome for patients and for community pharmacies across the country.

I commend the bill to the parliament.

Debate adjourned.