Bill
National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits—Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2017
passed, as at 2018-02-20. Health portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Health
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2017-10-18
- second reading — 2017-10-18
- other — 2018-02-07
- second reading — 2018-02-07
- second reading — 2018-02-07
- other — 2018-02-08
- third reading — 2018-02-08
- introduced — 2018-02-12
- second reading — 2018-02-12
- second reading — 2018-02-13
- second reading — 2018-02-13
- committee — 2018-02-13
- third reading — 2018-02-13
- passed — 2018-02-13
- royal assent — 2018-02-20
Divisions
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2017-10-18.
This bill changes how the price of certain medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is reduced over time.
It would extend and add new price reductions for single-brand drugs, raise the reduction for the first new brand, and let the Minister adjust reductions in some cases.
The bill also removes the clauses that would end the pharmacy location rules and the authority that supports them in 2020, and makes small fixes to price disclosure.
- The five per cent price cut for drugs listed five years is extended to 2022.
- A one-off ten per cent cut applies in June 2018 to drugs listed ten to fifteen years, and further cuts apply in April 2019, 2020, and 2021.
- Drugs listed fifteen years or more get a one-off ten per cent cut then five per cent, totalling 14.5 per cent.
- The cut for the first new brand rises from 16 to 25 per cent from October 2018, then returns to 16 per cent in July 2022.
- The Minister can reduce or waive a price cut if the medicine already had cuts since January 2016.
- The sunset clauses for the pharmacy authority and location rules are removed.
Drug companies, pharmacies, and the Australian Community Pharmacy Authority.
Sources
em
em supp
em supp
billhome
frl act