Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the National Health Amendment (Supporting Patient Access to Cheaper Medicines and Other Measures) Bill 2024. The Greens will be supporting this bill. This bill does a few things, one of which is to freeze the indexation of patient co-payments for PBS medications. It does that for five years for people who are on income healthcare cards, and it does it for one year after the rest of the community. It also provides assistance to pharmacists who are dispensing 60-day scripts.

I note, as my Greens colleagues have, that the cost of health care is rising, and this is just one step the government should be taking to reduce the cost of health care for people in this country. So we strongly urge the government to, in addition to this measure, take action on things like putting mental health and dental care into Medicare and moving to a position where people can, no matter their income, access the pharmaceuticals that they need.