Government announces price cut for major medications
Consumers and taxpayers will save more than $344 million on medications from 1 October.
Consumers and taxpayers will save more than $344 million on medications from 1 October.In what will come as welcome news to many Australian families, the government has announced that it will be cutting the everyday costs on a total of 24 medicines on 1 October 2018. The government says these changes should help everyday Aussies save money.
"The price drops will save consumers and taxpayers more than $344 million, delivering cheaper medicines for patients and more support for listing more new medicines on the PBS," Minister for Health Greg Hunt said in a statement.
If you're one of the roughly 200,000 patients per year that take pregabalin to treat your neuropathic pain, you can expect to save $6.12 on your script with a price drop from $39.94 to $33.38 per script. If you use valsartan with hydrochlorothiazide to treat your hypertension, you'll save $2.18 per script, with prices for the drug dropping from $26.14 to $23.96. And if you take dorzolamide for your glaucoma, you'll now pay $19.18 for your eye drops versus $22.20, a savings of $3.02 per script.
The drug with the largest price drop was bosentan, which is used in the treatment of pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) and sees its cost fall from $2,342.72 to $1,583.85 for 60 125 mg (as monohydrate) tablets. That's a savings of $758.87.
While the amount you'll save will depend on the strength and quantity of the medication, any medicine containing the following can expect to see savings:
- Nicorandil
- Pregabalin
- Dorzolamide
- Capecitabine
- Oxycodone
- Dorzolamide with timolol
- Valsartan with hydrochlorothiazide
- Frusemide
- Adefovir
- Azacitidine
- Bleomycin
- Bosentan
- Entecavir
- Eplerenone
- Imatinib
- Infliximab
- Modafinil
- Nevirapine
- Pemetrexed
- Raloxifene
- Tirofiban
- Tranexamic acid
- Ursodeoxycholic acid
- Valganciclovir
Unfortunately, only 4 of the 26 medications are listed in the top 50 PBS drugs for government cost or subsidised prescriptions for 2016-2017. However, these drugs did account for 7,310,733 PBS subsidised prescriptions in 2016-2017:
| Medicine | PBS subsidised prescriptions |
|---|---|
| Pregabalin | 3,509,499 |
| Oxycodone | 2,358,432 |
| Imatinib | 25,800 |
| Frusemide | 1,417,002 |
Compare your health insurance options today
Latest health headlines
- Is 130,000 Velocity points worth changing your health insurance for?
- Medical expenses up 8.3% – how can you avoid being stung?
- Earn over $90K? You could save $900+ in tax with basic private health cover
- Health insurance costs rise from April 1: 5 ways to save
- Optical inclusion: Extras cover the top reason for taking out health insurance, survey finds
Picture: Shutterstock
When will the price of codeine go down?
Hi Alexander,
Thank you for leaving a question.
There is still no news on a price drop for Codeine. You might want to visit the website of the Department of Health Theraputic Goods Administration for updates of pharmaceutical products. Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Reggie