SAY NO TO PBS DEFERRALS - Please sign our petition and see the history of PBS deferrals and why it matters

SAY NO TO PBS DEFERRALS - Please sign our petition and see the history of PBS deferrals and why it matters

Better Access Australia

Better health, disability and social services

Better Access Australia is a not-for-profit that contributes to public policy debates through research, publications, public discussion and advocacy. We recognise that Australia’s health, disability and social services systems work best when all parties engage in good faith and everyone's contributions are recognised and valued

In just three short years Better Access Australia has partnered with others in the community to focus on #equalityofaccess and #equalityofcare in the social services sector to deliver the following reform:

Establishing a national newborn screening program for 80 diseases

#newbornscreeningnow #mindthegap

Reduced the cost of PBS medicines

#cheapermedicines

Ended PBS discrimination of patients seeing opioid dependence treatment

#endPBSdiscrimination

  • The Dispatched Podcast

    BAA Chair, Felicity McNeill joins BioPharmaDispatch publisher Paul Cross every Friday to discuss some of the latest events in the health and disability system in Australia.

    This week (1 Nov) we once again discuss the PBS DEFERRALS - the decision of government to defer 44 of 77 PBAC submissions due to be considered in March 2025 till July or later and the pharmaceutical industry’s acceptance of this new arrangement without any consideration or consultation with patients.

    Patients have no visibility of these decisions and no opportunity to input. This breaks the social compact of the PBS we have trusted in for generations. If this is allowed to stand, we will never get timely access back.

    Consumer comments for the March 2025 agenda will be too late for the 44 medicines dismissed out of hand.

    We’ve started a petition to protect our PBS and patient access, available here.

    BAA also took the opportunity to thank Astellas Pharma for helping us get information to clinicians and carers at short notice. A great example of putting patients first. Thank you

  • Patients say NO to PBS Deferrals by stealth

    On 22nd October, the government advised they were stopping 44 of 77 PBS medicine submissions being considered at the March 2025 PBAC, deferring them to at least July 2025 or later.

    Statements over the weekend confirmed the industry has accepted the need for this DEFERRALS process going forward.  This is completely unacceptable.

    In 2011 the Gillard Government deferred listing seven PBS recommendations. The community, rallied to challenge this and since then there has been bi-partisan support to list every PBAC PBS recommendation.

    The Albanese Government is now deferring PBAC consideration of submissions before a recommendation can even be made and without consultation with the community. 

    Deferring PBS medicine submissions will see patients waiting indefinitely for subsidised access to these medicines, including rare disease, chronic disease and cancer treatments. Patients have no visibility of what treatments that might benefit them are being delayed indefinitely.

    Access to new medicines is not a privilege. It is a right that the Australian government should dutifully uphold.

    .Please help us protect patient access to medicines by signing our petition .

  • HTA Review will deliver savings but won't deliver better access

    The HTA review and its accompanying selected consumer report have finally been released - a product of secrecy and exclusion of all but pharmaceutical companies and a handful of privileged patient groups and consultants.

    Sadly, the majority of the recommendations in this report will not achieve improvement in access to medicines, diagnostics and devices in Australia but they will achieve savings for the system - but at what cost to access? BAA is preparing a response bur top of our concerns are:

    1. No proposals to achieve anything like #100days to access.

    2. Silence on women's health.

    3. Silence on scope of practice and access to subsidies for all prescribers.

    4. Commitment to savings reforms (we support) but without a clear improvement in access for patients to all medicines and indications.

    5. Dangerous precedents for diagnostics and therapeutics.

  • Newborn Screening Now

    Two and a half years and $80M later since the PM promised a national newborn bloodspot screening program for our babies, not one new test has been nationally added. Up to five babies every day are missing a life-saving or life-changing diagnosis as a result. The Government must be held to account for their election promises.

    #withoutdiagnosisthereisnotreatment

  • 100 Days To Listing

    The Government needs KPIs that insist that all medical technologies will be given funded access through public or private health systems within 100 days of safety and efficacy registration in Australia (via the ARTG). It is time to stop using Health Technology Assessment as a delaying tactic and instead be used as an accountability tool – accountability for government, accountability for suppliers.

    #100days

  • Adult Vaccination

    COVID-19 showed us the importance of through-life vaccination, but the National Immunisation Program and National Immunisation Strategy do not reflect this reality, particularly for immunocompromised patients in Australia. We need proper immune health advice for our public health decision-making bodies, and a new partnership between public and private health to value the impact of vaccines in adult-Australian healthcare

    #equalityofaccess

  • Better Funded Contraception on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)

    Did you know - 1 in 10 women in Australia suffer from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), and that number increases to 1 in 5 for First Nations women. Women need affordable access to modern contraceptives, not just to manage their reproductive health, but to reduce their cancer risk. Most contraceptives subsidised on the PBS are old technology and do not meet the health needs of Australian women.

    #womenshealthmatters

Your voice is important.

Do you have a story to share?

Better Access Australia wants to hear consumer voices. Whether that be your experience with newborn screening or lack thereof.

Have you struggled navigating the health, disability or social service system?

We want to hear from you.

No voice is too small.

Everyone’s story is important to us, and to the broader social services system.