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Senate kills $5 script fee hike

Change blocked: The Senate will not allow the $5 script fee hike. Picture: Bill Hatto/The West Australian

A $5 rise in co-payments for medicines will not go ahead after staunch Senate opposition forced the Federal Government to dump the proposal.

But it leaves Health Minister Sussan Ley scrambling to plug the $1.3 billion hole, a week after the Budget was handed down.

The co-payment increase was announced in last year's Budget, with the Government wanting to raise the price of a script by 80 cents to $6.90 for concession cardholders and $5 to $42.70 for everyone else.

As part of the change, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme safety net thresholds were going to rise.

That would have meant patients had to spend more on medicines before they qualified for free or deeply discounted scripts.

The changes were to start from January 1 but a lack of support forced the Government to shelve the measure last year, though it was reaffirmed in last week's Budget.

Ms Ley publicly confirmed yesterday it would be abandoned, earning it the unwanted title of the first measure to be jettisoned post-Budget.

"I am not going to waste time putting things through the Parliament that are going to be voted down by my colleagues," she said.

The proposed increase was at odds with the Government's agreement with pharmacy owners to reduce the co-payment by allowing chemist shops to offer a $1 discount off the price of a script.

Ms Ley said savings from the health portfolio needed to be found to help repair the Budget and still be able to afford new drugs.

Shadow health minister Catherine King said the decision to abandon the price rise a week after the Budget was a "shambles".

"It means when it comes to health, the Government is in chaos, and when it comes to this Budget, its Budget projections are now blown out of the water," she said.

It has been mooted the Government is seeking savings of up to $5 billion from the PBS.

These include an across-the-board 5 per cent price cut for single brand medicines and speeding up price reductions for off-patent medicines.