Anne Stanley MP

26/11/2024

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How is the Albanese Labor government making medicines cheaper for all Australians, including new medicines being added to the PBS? How do cheaper medicines help strengthen Medicare after a decade of cuts and neglect?

Mr BUTLER (Hindmarsh-Minister for Health and Aged Care and Deputy Leader of the House) (15:16): I thank the member for Werriwa for her question. She is such a strong supporter of our work to strengthen Medicare and make medicines cheaper. It's something we talk about constantly. And she knows that, in just over two years, we've made more than 260 new or expanded listings on the PBS, providing Australians with access to the world's best medicines at affordable PBS prices.

This month, we've expanded access to Evenity, a leading treatment for severe osteoporosis. Up until now, Evenity has only been available after a patient, usually an older woman, has suffered not one but two separate fractures, but now it will be available as a first-line treatment immediately after a diagnosis of severe osteoporosis. This is going to benefit more than 9,000 mainly older Australians every single year. And instead of those older Australians paying almost 1 billion in co-payments at the pharmacy counter, making a real difference at a time of cost-of-living pressure. We know Australian households are still doing it tough. That's why we're also freezing the price of medicines next year for up to five years, which will save them another 1 billion at the pharmacy. In his first budget as health minister, the Leader of the Opposition actually tried to force medicine prices up in a way that would have cost patients a billion dollars more, not a billion dollars less-proving yet again that you can't trust this man and you can't trust the Liberal Party on Medicare.

Link to Hansard: Full Speech