Guild builds case for co-payment cut

CUTTING out-of-pocket costs for patients will be the key issue the Pharmacy Guild of Australia will urge political parties to back in the run up to the next Federal election, the organisation’s Executive Director, Suzanne Greenwood, says.

Speaking during the first of the Australian Friendly Societies Pharmacies Association (AFSPA) Webinar Series events on Mon, Greenwood reiterated calls made last week by Guild National President, Trent Twomey, for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) general co-payment of $41.30 to be halved (PD 10 Sep).

“During the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) negotiations we were putting forward to the Government what we called at the time our Universal Access package, and it was around that universality of healthcare - trying to make things more affordable - [but] the Government clearly had no appetite, no interest for exploring that at the time,” she said.

“So we reshaped things into what we now call our Affordable Medicines Reform (AMR) package, [and] unfortunately, I would feel it’s fair to say the Government does not have a strong appetite for it.

“We are therefore needing to do a lot of work to establish the case for change and [to] establish why this is an imperative that the Government needs to pay attention to.

“Obviously this period from now through to when the election is called is a critical period for our advocacy.

“We have our AMR campaign internally, which covers all aspects from stakeholder engagement to surveying, getting information that research, so we’ve got the data to support what we’re putting forward.”

Greenwood noted that the Guild was continuing to engage with all sides of politics as it seeks to secure a cut to the PBS co-payment.

“It’s probably fair to say that the opposition has a much stronger appetite for medicines affordability as a policy,” she said.

“But that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop talking to the Coalition any time soon.”