Pills not so hard to swallow

PATIENTS and taxpayers will pay less for hundreds of medicines as a result of the May budget as the Federal Government wrings $1.8 billion in savings from big drug companies.

However, many people will be pushed to switch to cheaper generic versions of their medicines to save the taxpayer money.

And the price of X-rays and scans could rise with the Government poised to abandon an election pledge to index the Medicare rebates for these services.

Under a five-year deal with the medicines industry the price of some contraceptive pills, pain medication Lyrica, the blood thinner Warfarin and epipens to treat anaphylaxis will drop.

Pensioners will still pay $6.30 for these medicines.

It can also be revealed: • The Medicare rebate for bulk-billed GP visits will rise for concession patients from July this year and from July 2018 for general patients. • The price of two of the most expensive medicines on the drug subsidy scheme will be slashed by 25 per cent. • Chemists will get taxpayer funding to compensate them for low prescription volumes and $600 million for in pharmacy diabetes checks. • Pharmaceutical companies will suffer major price cuts for hundreds of their medicines. • A 2014 plan to raise the price of prescription drugs by $5 is expected to be abandoned.

Health Minister Greg Hunt is about to introduce changes that will see prescription software altered so that the cheaper generic version of a medicine is prescribed by default.

Patients who use the cholesterol lowering medicine Lipitor or antidepressant Zoloft for example will be automatically prescribed a generic version.

Doctors who want to prescribe the more expensive brand name drug will have to navigate a more complex system to generate it.

Despite the fact that generic medicines are cheaper, just as effective and could save the health system billions of dollars only six in 10 patients use them.

The Government hopes to increase usage to 80 per cent under the changes.

A spokesman for Mr Hunt refused to comment on budget measures but said: “Our goal is always to reduce the cost of medicines for Australian patients.”