Setting the record straight: Australia’s PBS expenditure is in decline

Comments made this week by Australia’s federal Health Minister, Peter Dutton MP, about expenditure on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) being a growing component of federal government health spending could be misinterpreted, says the country’s Generic Medicines Industry Association (GMiA).

Addressing a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event in Brisbane on Wednesday, Mr Dutton said factors such as aging, the growing prevalence of diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's disease and new technologies had placed the health system ''on an unsustainable path,” reported the Sydney Moring Herald. The Treasury forecasts annual Commonwealth health spending will grow from the current level of A$62 billion ($55.92 billion) to A$75 billion by 2016-17, and balloon from its current level of 4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 7% by 2050.

Government expenditure on the PBS is in decline, according to the government’s own data, the GMiA pointed out, noting that PBS reforms in 2007, 2010 and 2013 continue to deliver significant savings to the Federal Government.