Give patients a seat at the PBS Strategic Agreement table to deliver a PATIENTS FIRST PBS

Give patients a seat at the PBS Strategic Agreement table to deliver a PATIENTS FIRST PBS

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 five 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 a range of reforms including:

Establishing a national newborn screening program for 80 diseases

#newbornscreeningnow #mindthegap

Reduced the cost of PBS medicines

#cheapermedicines

Ended PBS discrimination of patients seeking opioid dependence treatment

#endPBSdiscrimination

  • The Dispatched Podcast

    BAA Chair, Felicity McNeill joins BPDInsights publisher Paul Cross every Friday to discuss some of the latest events in the health, aged, disability and broader social services policy in Australia.

    This week (10 July) the tide of concerns coming forward on medicines pricing on the PBS continues.  With the July PBAC Agenda dealing with requests to change risk shares, recommendations being abandoned or challenged, requests to reverse price cuts on MS treatments, to the loss of breast cancer treatments altogether.  What is going on with the PBS and why is the Health Minister starting to wear his cranky pants again in his engagement with the media on this issue? With his reform priorities for the NDIS, where does restoring the foundational principle of the PBS - community access to medicines, sit in his priorities? 

    Listen Here

  • A Patients First PBS

    In introducing health technology assessments (HTA) and the term cost-effectiveness into the legislation governing the PBAC and its advice on the PBS in the 1980s, the PBS has gradually had its core focus of patient access eroded. The PBS advisory systems are procuring medicines like they are bulk purchasing a widget. 

    BAA supports wise use of taxpayer funds, but the obsession with lowest price in this area of the general government sector, and in particular healthcare is without compare. As a result, Australians are simply not getting access to medicines and health technology in the primary care setting.

    Our prices are a little too low, our risk shares demand suppliers pay for PBS-eligible patients that the Government should be paying for, and our price cuts have got so frequent and steep, that we are pricing Australia out of the global market on existing and new treatments.

    The Government need to make the first move to end this growing stalemate and put PATIENTS BEFORE PROCUREMENT.

    It's time to make patients the first priority of Government, the PBAC and the Department when it comes to the PBS.

    Patients First PBS Project

  • Why PBS rebates and risk shares are a problem

    The 2026-27 federal Budget advised that the Government had funded almost $6B in new listings since the last Budget. But after special pricing arrangements and patient number caps, that net listing value over 5 years is actually closer $1.8-$2.8B. So what’s really going on with our PBS and why are these rebates threatening patient access?

    PBS pricing is so low, that book higher prices are published to protect against cost comparisons in other global markets.

    The government often doesn’t pay for all patients eligible for the PBS subsidy. It sets the patient number so low that the company ends up funding the medicine for free for up to 75% of eligible patients in some cases. The PBS should pay for all eligible patients, not just some.

    With regular and ad-hoc price cuts as well, medicines get de-listed or simply not listed at all.

    Confused? Read read our quick guide to what Risk Shares mean for spending on the PBS and how they actually work.

    Quick Guide to Risk Shares

  • Newborn Screening Now

    Four years and $107M 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

    Read More

  • 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

    Read More

  • 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

    Read More

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.