Breaking from the Australian Financial Review: Coalition quietly shelves $1.3b drugs co-payment

  • A hike in patient costs for prescription drugs under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will not proceed by its intended start date of January 1, jeopardising one of the government’s biggest health savings announced in the May budget.
  • The government’s failure to secure the legislation’s passage before its intended start date will curtail at least part of the budgeted savings of $1.3 billion over four years which were slated for the Medical Research Future Fund
  • It will also require changes to the estimated savings in the health portfolio that will appear in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook when it is published in coming weeks.