143 PBS medicines Aussies are paying $180 more due to agreement with Pharmacy Guild

A secret deal between the Albanese government and the Pharmacy Guild is costing Aussies $180 more for 143 prescription medicines. See if your medicine is on the list.

Australians are being prevented from saving $180 a year on medicines by a devious clause in an agreement between the government and Australia’s powerful Pharmacy Guild.

We can reveal the clause means the federal government has to financially compensate pharmacies if the number of prescriptions dispensed around the country drops in any year.

It’s the key reason the government has no incentive to act on a call by its own independent advisory body to save consumers at least $180 a year in medicine costs by allowing chemists to dispense 60 days’ worth of medicine instead of the current 30 days.

The Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and independent MP Monique Ryan have all called on the government to include the cost-of-living reduction measure in the budget.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory body, which decides which medicines get a government subsidy, called for the change to apply to 143 commonly-prescribed medicines in 2019.

Instead of having to go to the chemist for a new pack of medicine every month, patients would get two months’ of the drug each visit.

They would save money because they would only have to pay the PBS co-payment of $7.30 for pensioners and $30 for general patients six times a year, instead of 12 times.

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Federal MP Monique Ryan wants 60 day scripts Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

In theory taxpayers should also save money because it would halve the number of times the government had to pay chemists the $7.82 dispensing fee.

However, we can reveal Clause 3 of the five-year Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement signed between the previous government and the Pharmacy Guild prevents this.

Under the clause if the number of prescriptions issued in any year drops by more than two per cent, as it would under this change, the government would have to top up payments to chemists, obliterating any savings from the measure.

“When prescription volumes are above or below agreed parameters, remuneration is adjusted in accordance with the Community Pharmacy Agreement,” a Pharmacy Guild spokesperson told News Corp.

AMA president Dr Steve Robson said “it’s a baffling situation when you consider that essential GP services have no funding guarantee”.

Teal independent MP Monique Ryan said the government had “entered into a contract under which the more healthy we are, the more money the taxpayer pays pharmacies!”.

“In a time of critical budgetary and cost of living pressures, we need much greater transparency around this type of contract – around where the taxpayers’ money is going, and why,” she said.

The Pharmacy Guild concedes medicine prices are too high. Picture istock

Conceding that Australians are having difficulty paying for medicines, the Pharmacy Guild has instead relaunched its campaign to have the government cut the patient charge for monthly scripts from $30 to $19.

A $19 co-payment would cost taxpayers more than $1 billion, even though they can already buy many medicines half price at discounting pharmacies.

Chemist Warehouse chief operating officer Mario Tascone said his chain would like to make medicines even cheaper for its customers but the government prevented it from discounting the patient charge by more than $1.

News Corp revealed last year the proposed two month script policy so angered the Pharmacy Guild of Australia it donated $250,000 to former Health Minister Greg Hunt’s political enemies.

The powerful Pharmacy Guild has donated almost $1 million to political parties in the past five years.

Health Minister Mark Butler’s office said he does not comment on budget matters.

Originally published as 143 PBS medicines Aussies are paying $180 more due to agreement with Pharmacy Guild