Skip to content Skip to menu
Australian Government Coat of Arms

Budget | 2014-15

Budget 2014-15
Australian Government Coat of Arms, Budget 2014-15
  1. budget.gov.au
  2. 2014‑15
  3. Health
  4. Sharing the cost of medicines

Sharing the cost of medicines

Increased patient contributions will keep the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme sustainable, ensuring the Government can continue to fund new and innovative medicines

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)

The Government is committed to providing timely, reliable and affordable access to necessary medicines for all Australians through the PBS. Current spending on the PBS is over $9 billion per year.

Under the PBS, the Government subsidises medicines for many medical conditions.

Patients pay a set co-payment, even for medicines that cost tens of thousands of dollars per patient per year. This means they generally do not pay more than the co-payment.

An ageing population, increasing rates of chronic disease, and the listing of new and expensive medicines are expected to drive PBS growth over the longer term.

Current arrangements

Today, patients pay a PBS co-payment of $36.90 or $6.00 if they have a concession card.

The co-payment is adjusted every January in line with inflation, so the 2015 co-payments below are estimates only.

Increasing co-payments

The Government is increasing the amount patients contribute to help keep the PBS sustainable.

From 1 January 2015 patients will pay $42.70* (instead of $37.70*) or $6.90* (instead of $6.10*) if they have a concession card.

All savings from increasing PBS co-payments will be invested in the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund.

Impact on patients

Under the changes patients will pay an extra $5.00, or $0.80 if they have a concession card, towards the cost of each PBS prescription.

These changes will not affect the price of medicines for general patients which fall below the general co-payment.

For example, if a medicine costs $20.00, a general patient will pay $20.00 rather than the $42.70* co-payment. They may pay less if they shop around.

Medicine in 2015 Amount patient would pay without Government subsidy General patient pays Concessional patient pays
Before After Before After
Heart disease — Clopidogrel + Aspirin $54.96 $37.70* $42.70* $6.10* $6.90*
Diabetes (type 1 or 2) medication — Insulin Neutral Human $224.53 $37.70* $42.70* $6.10* $6.90*
Malignant melanoma — Dabrafenibn $8,758.74 $37.70* $42.70* $6.10* $6.90*

* Co-payments and safety net thresholds are projected from 1 January 2015 based on estimates of indexation by the Consumer Price Index.