Australia’s PBS Is Not for Sale

Imagine paying over $300 a month just to manage your cholesterol. That’s the reality for millions of Americans who are prescribed common cholesterol medications. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to have health insurance. Without it, the price can skyrocket further. And the consequences? People ration their pills. They skip doses. And they go without. Preventable heart attacks, strokes and deaths are thus grimly routine.

Here in Australia, thanks to the Pharmaceutial Benefits Scheme (PBS), the same medicines cost less than $32 a month, or just $7.70 if you hold a concession card. That’s not just a difference in price. That’s a difference in principle. It’s a reflection of who we are as a nation. We believe in a fair go - fairness, public health, and looking after each other.

But now, that principle is under threat. Donald Trump and his oligarch mates are threatening to impose punitive tariffs of up to 200% on Australian exports. They’re arguing the PBS unfairly limits their profits. In reality, what our PBS limits is their ability to exploit illness for profits. US pharmaceutical companies make profits of over $160 billion per annum! And for that, we’re being economically blackmailed.

Let’s call this what it is: corporate thuggery, dressed up as trade policy.

The PBS is a deliberate, democratic choice of Australians to put people before profit. It ensures pensioners can afford their arthritis medication, parents don’t have to choose between food and antibiotics for their kids, and that rural Australians aren’t priced out of insulin or asthma inhalers. It keeps hospital admissions down, and reduces long-term health care costs. It underpins our social fabric. And of course, it saves lives!

If Australia surrendered and allowed prescription prices to balloon like they have in America, the result would be catastrophic: rising inequality, avoidable deaths, and an erosion of the very idea of a fair go. Our public health system would become two-tiered. There’d be one for the rich, one for the rest of us. And once that happened, it’d be nearly impossible to go back.

This isn’t hypothetical. In the US, one-third of people don't take their medicines due to costs. That means millions of working people like nurses, bus drivers, teachers, and single parents, are living sicker, dying younger, and paying more, simply to support pharmaceutical giants and their mega profits.

And now Donald Trump and those same big companies want to punish Australia for having the courage and decency to look after ourselves. If our government caves in to threats like these, it will sacrifice the health and dignity of every Australian.

The PBS isn’t a bargaining chip. It’s not negotiable. And it’s not for sale. As part of Medicare, it’s one of the best things about Australia. It reflects who we are: pragmatic, compassionate, and fair. We need all our leaders to stand up and say clearly: this will not stand. Did you hear that Albo and Sussan Ley?

Because in Australia, we don’t believe getting sick should make you poor. And we certainly don’t believe that billion-dollar corporations should write public health policy. We should.

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