Pharmacy Guild stops budget measure to save consumer costs

Millions of Australians have missed out on saving up to $240 a year on the cost of their prescription medicines because of a revolt by the powerful Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

Exclusive: Millions of Australians have missed out on saving up to $240 a year on the cost of their prescription medicines because of a revolt by the powerful Pharmacy Guild of Australia.

The Australian Medical Association has slammed the backdown by Health Minister Greg Hunt as putting chemists “profits before patients”.

News Corp Australia has learned the government was planning a budget measure that would have allowed patients to obtain two months supply of a subsidised medicine each time they visited a chemist instead of the current one month supply.

The measure was set to apply to 140 medicines used to treat chronic health problems like high cholesterol and blood pressure.

It would have saved the taxpayer money because the government would only have to pay chemists the $7.29 dispensing fee six times a year instead of 12 times.

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Health Minister Greg Hunt caves into the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. Picture: AAP

The change would also have saved the consumer money because they would only have to pay the PBS co-payment of $6.50 for pensioners and $40.30 for general patients six times a year instead of 12 times.

And it would have been more convenient for patients who would have to travel to get prescriptions filled half as many times each year.

At a time of low wage growth, the measure would have been welcome relief for Australians struggling to make ends meet.

The change was recommended by the government’s independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee a body whose advice the Health Minister says he always acts on.

However, the government was forced to back away from the plan a week before the budget after the Pharmacy Guild learned of it and complained it would reduce the income of its 3000 members.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia is one of the most powerful lobby groups in Canberra winning hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funded concessions.

Federal President of the AMA Dr Tony Bartone says the move puts chemist profits ahead of patients. Picture: Kym Smith

Using its political influence it has shut-out supermarkets from selling prescription medicines and each election it gets both sides of politics to pledge to preserve the system which means only chemists can own pharmacies and restrict where new ones can open.

The Guild’s power derives from the fact there are 5723 pharmacies, one in almost every suburb in Australia, and it threatens to use these outlets to campaign against politicians who make decisions they don’t like.

The Pharmacy Guild began flexing those muscles today with a full-page advertisement in T he Australian newspaper “to remind the government, ahead of the budget” they served customers every day and needed continued government support.

It also wrote a letter to its 3000 members advising it was in dispute with the government over a measure that would have a “devastating impact on the viability of community pharmacy businesses across Australia”.

The Government’s cost-saving measure was set to apply to 140 medicines.

“Profitability of many pharmacies would have been effectively halved, sending them to the wall, with mass loss of jobs and displacement of vital patient services,” Pharmacy Guild president George Tambassis wrote.

“We believe we have succeeded in dissuading the Government from proceeding with this destructive, unwarranted idea, but we cannot rest until we are confident it is off the table — now and forever,” he said.

Health Minister Greg Hunt told News Corp Australia he was not planning to go ahead with the cost saving measure at this stage.

“The medical experts on the PBAC have provided a proposal for doctors to be given the choice to prescribe a larger medicine pack size for some patients who have stable and chronic conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and glaucoma,” he said.

“The Government will carefully consider the proposal and is not proposing to change medicines pack sizes at this stage, the proposal would be the subject of extensive consultation with consumers, the medical community and the pharmacy sector.”