Macarthur residents will soon be able to purchase more medicine for less under a major shake-up of the PBS.

The Albanese Government has announced that from 1^st September 2023, Australians will be able to buy two months’ worth of medicine for the price of a single prescription.

Dr Mike Freelander MP, the Federal Member for Macarthur, has strongly welcomed this announcement, as it will mean fewer visits to the GP and will result in significantly reduced medicine costs for at least 6 million Australians.

Every year, too many Australians forgo or delay accessing medicines that their doctor prescribed them due to costs and being unable to keep up with the frequency needed to renew scripts. This policy will help change this and ensure more Australians can access the treatments they need.

By introducing 60-day prescribing, the Minister for Health, Mark Butler MP, is implementing a key recommendation from the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) report, which was released in 2018 but was never implemented by the former Morrison government, costing Australians billions in lost savings.

Following the Albanese Government’s changes, this will bring Australia into line with other countries, such as New Zealand, France, Canada and the United Kingdom where patients already have access to multiple month medications on a single prescription.

60-day prescribing will provide doctors with the option to prescribe a two-month supply of 325 medicines on the PBS, including hundreds of medicines for conditions like heart disease, cholesterol, Crohn disease and hypertension.

Doctors will also have the option of providing 12-month prescriptions.

This will benefit not only general patients, but also concessional patients and veterans too, which Dr Freelander notes will greatly benefit many Macarthur residents.

Providing equitable access to healthcare is a key aim of Dr Freelander’s and this policy helps the nation come one-step closer to achieving this.

Further, it will also mean fewer trips to a pharmacy to fill scripts in, which will benefit residents who have mobility issues and those who are time-poor or lack efficient transport means, which Dr Freelander notes will greatly benefit many Macarthur residents too.

To assist community pharmacies, the Albanese Government is also investing $350 million to assist them manage programs to ensure older Australians in aged care facilities receive their medication.

This policy is another example of the Albanese Government’s proud record of making medicines cheaper for all Australians. On January 1, for the first time in the 75-year history of the PBS, the general co-payment was reduced from $42.50 to $30; this resulted in 5.1 million prescriptions being cheaper in the first three months.

Quotes attributable to Dr Freelander:
“Equitable access to healthcare is always a priority for a Labor Government and this is a further step towards this. There is more to be done and I look forward to working with my colleagues, particularly the Minister for Health, to achieve this”