Abstract
IN ANY DISCUSSION of key pharmaceutical policy
issues, Australia?s National Medicines Policy
(NMP) is an important touchstone of which
Australians can be justly proud. Those familiar
with the stalled evolution of the Canadian
National Pharmaceuticals Strategy and the uneven
provincial patchwork of pharmaceutical coverage
in Canada for example, may wonder why it is that
a country with longstanding universal health care
has neither universal coverage of medicines nor a
cohesive national policy framework like Australia?s
NMP.
One of the fundamental objectives of the NMP
is to deliver ?timely access to the medicines that
Australians need, at a cost individuals and the
community can afford?. It also says that ?cost
should not constitute a substantial barrier to
people?s access to medicines they need? and that
while ?. . . the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
(PBS) facilitates access to certain prescribed medicines
by subsidising costs . . . (S)uch subsidies
are not costless, and the community as a whole
must bear them?. Importantly it also says that ?. . .
access to medicines should support the rational
use of those medicines?.