At a press conference today in Canberra, Pharmacy Guild National President Professor Trent Twomey welcomed the move, calling it a “positive action for patients” and a sign the Government is prioritising medicine affordability.
“This is great news for 20 million Australians without a concession card, who will collectively save $689 million over the next four years,” Professor Twomey said.
The legislation follows calls from more than 20 health and community organisations—including Asthma Australia, QENDO, Family Planning Alliance Australia and Patients Australia—for stronger action to make essential medicines more affordable.
“Community pharmacies are at the coal face of the tough choices patients are forced to make between medicines and everyday essentials like rent or groceries,” Professor Twomey said. “No one should have to skip medication because they can’t afford it.”
Minister for Health the Hon Mark Butler MP, and Assistant Minister for Mental Health, Suicide Prevention, and Rural and Regional Health the Hon Emma McBride MP, also spoke at the event about the importance of cheaper medicines to Labor’s new health agenda.
“When we were elected in 2022, one of the core components of our promise to strengthen Medicare was to deliver cheaper medicines,” Minister Butler said this morning.
“Not only are cheaper medicines terrific for the hip pocket, they’re also a really important measure for public health.
“Trent and his colleagues at the Guild were bringing us story after story of pharmacists having their customers come through the front door with scripts, asking for advice from their trusted pharmacist about which one was really important and which one they could perhaps go without, because they simply couldn’t afford to fill all of their scripts.”
