Medical Questions » Medicines Questions » Question No. 649
| Question: | I am a pensioner, but despite having to pay $3.30 for my medications, there are some that I will have to pay a lot more for. Why aren' t all the medicines essential for a pensioner subsidised? |
| Answer: | Every four months, the Commonwealth Department of Health forwards a book to all doctors and chemists in the countrv. This contains the list of medications that the Commonwealth Government will subsidise for pensioners. It also states how much of each medication may be given and how often it may be repeated. In many cases, the actual diseases for which the medication may be prescribed are also stated. For this reason, some medications may be provided for $3.30 to one patient, while the next has to pay a lot more for it because they have a different disease.
The list of Pharmaceutical Benefits covers the vast majority of essential medications required by the Australian community. Unfortunately, there will always be those whose condition cannot be catered for by the medications on the list. Doctors will then offer their patients medications that must be paid for.
The government is limited in the amount of money available to pay for these subsidised prescriptions, and allocates this money in the best way it can. This may sound rather like a propaganda exercise to defend the government policies, but I do have some sympathy for the dilemma faced by the bureaucrats because the demand for medical services and medications is almost limitless.
It would be unusual for a pensioner to pay extra for more than one or two prescriptions per year.
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