Fed: Gillard warns against two-tier drug system

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-2005
Fed: Gillard warns against two-tier drug system

MELBOURNE, Aug 1 AAP - The federal government's failure to force four drug companies
to accept lower prices foreshadowed the start of a two-tiered pharmaceutical system, Labor's
health spokeswoman Julia Gillard said today.

Her comments follow revelations some lung cancer patients will have to pay up to $460
extra for prescriptions for medicines that are no longer fully subsidised under the Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Four drug companies have refused to accept lower prices for their products, which were
previously fully subsidised under the PBS, The Australian newspaper reported today.

"If it is four drugs today then in 12 months' time it will be 40 drugs," Ms Gillard
told reporters in Melbourne.

"In two years' time it will be 80 drugs.

"This is the start of two-tiered PBS where if you can't pay for your medication you
simply don't get it."

Ms Gillard said the "essence of the PBS" was to allow patients to obtain the drugs
they need "no matter how expensive that medication" at the cost of a co-payment - less
than $5 for pensioners and less than $30 for others.

Health Minister Tony Abbott was to blame for the new prices, she said.

"He's the first minister for health ever who's walked into a room to negotiate with
pharmaceutical companies and come back out with new special patient contributions for
people to pay.

"How out of touch would you need to be to think it a fair thing for someone who is
battling with lung cancer to only be able to get their medication if they can pay $460?

"This new system is an absurdity, it's cruel and it's going to put new burdens on patients."

Ms Gillard said a Labor government would not mishandle negotiations with pharmaceutical
companies so that people ended up paying more.

From today, what would have been a 12.5 per cent cut to the companies' bottom lines
will be passed on to patients, the newspaper reported.

But the government will pay the difference if a patient's doctor can convince the Health
Insurance Commission it is the only effective drug they can take, the paper said.

Under government policy, each time a cheaper generic copy of a drug is introduced to
the market, all drugs said to have the same medical results receive the 12.5 per cent
cut.

In Australia each year, more than 8,200 people are diagnosed with lung cancer and more
than 7,000 people die of the disease, according to The Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare cancer figures for 2001.

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KEYWORD: LUNG GILLARD

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