Changes to Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme to boost medicine affordability

Safety net threshold for general patients has been decreased from $268.1 to $217.8.

The updated Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme of Australia (PBS) has lowered the threshold for the PBS safety net on 1 January 2020, easing the financial burden of patients who spend significant amounts of money on PBS medicines, such as people with chronic conditions, said a report by Fitch Solutions.

From $268.1 (AUD$390), the safety net threshold for concessional patients has been decreased to $217.8 (AUD$316.80) whilst for general patients, the former threshold of $1066.2 (AUD$1,550) has been lowered to $1,022.2 (AUD$1,486.80).

Fitch Solutions noted that such changes in the safety net threshold will allow earlier access to free or cheaper medicines for more than 1.6 million Australian patients, resulting in 12 fewer PBS scripts needing to be filled in a year before concessional patients meet the threshold as well as to two fewer scripts for general patients.

Meanwhile, the government continues to subsidise the cost of medicines for every medicine approved by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC).