The Pharmacy Guild has just relaunched its successful ‘Affordable Medicines Now’ campaign to reduce the maximum co-payment of PBS medicines from $30 to $19.
The new push follows fresh reports of Australians going without medicines and visits to their health professional, because of the rising cost of living.
Pharmacy Guild National President, Professor Trent Twomey, says the reports are correlating with what patients are telling their local community pharmacists about medicine affordability.
“Sadly, the recent successive rises in interest rates coupled with high inflation have eaten away the gains we made in our campaign which successfully brought down the co-payment from a maximum of $42.50 to $30.”
In its previous campaign leading up to the last federal election, the Guild had initially pushed for the $19 amount.
“We have made no secret that we have wanted to go further and reduce the cost by another $11 to bring the maximum co-payment down to just $19, so more Australians can afford medicines for themselves and their families,” Professor Twomey said.
“The reason we have landed on the $19 figure is that it will make 70% of PBS medicines more affordable for 19 million Australians.”
Professor Twomey says the Guild is determined to get the government to listen to its renewed campaign and has deployed resources to ensure its voice is heard.
“We’ve written to every federal MP across Australia asking them to back us to help Australians afford their own medicine.”
The Guild also robocalled voters in the lead up to the recent by election in the Victorian federal seat of Aston.
“Both sides of politics say our health is a priority. Well, let’s see if they are willing to put their money where their mouth is and support a fair reduction to the cost of medicines,” Professor Twomey said.
He also said this is just the start of a long campaign to bring the co-payment down further.
“We are prepared to campaign as long as it takes to ensure Australians get a fair go on medicine affordability.”
