Monday, 15 March 2021
I rise today to talk about the government’s failure to list life-changing medications on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Over 400,000 Australians suffer from chronic migraines. I met recently with Tina from Morphett Vale, who is just one of these individuals. Tina told me about her experience of chronic migraines. She suffers on average 15 migraines a month. This impacts her social life, her quality time with her family and of course her work. She has benefitted from preventative migraine medications that have been made available to her in trials and other forums, but despite in 2019 the pharmaceutical benefit advisory committee recommending that Emgality gets put on the PBS, the government failed to act. They refuse to list this drug that could change the lives of those thousands of Australians. This is despite the Minister for Health claiming he is serious about listing every PBAC recommendation.
The only thing standing in the way of this serious migraine prevention medication is the Morrison government. It is time that this government actually does what it says it’s going to do—that is, actually list this important medication—because Tina, along with thousands of other Australians, will benefit significantly. Their lives will improve, and this will be critically important to them.
