Cheaper Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines for your patients
The maximum Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) co-payment for eligible prescription medicines has been reduced by 20% for everyone with a Medicare card.
From 1 January 2026, your patients now pay no more than $25 per PBS prescription, previously $31.60.
For concession cardholders, the maximum co-payment remains $7.70 until 2030.
These changes build on other recent measures undertaken to make medicines cheaper for consumers, including 60-day prescriptions which allow patients to get twice the medicine on a single prescription.
What is the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)?
The PBS is an Australian Government program that subsidises the cost of some medicines to make them more affordable for patients. The government does this through a ‘co-payment’, in which the cost of some medicines is shared between the government and a patient.
What cheaper PBS medicines will mean for your patients
With the new 20% reduction for PBS prescription medicines, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing estimates that:
someone who previously paid $31.60 per prescription could save up to $79.20 a year
families who fill 4 prescriptions a month may save up to $316.80 a year
patients using 60-day prescriptions could save an extra $150 a year.
Important information for prescribers and pharmacists
Guidance for general practitioners, midwives, nurse practitioners and optometrists on prescribing, including information about PBS prescription forms is available on the PBS website.
Information for pharmacists about the PBS, including information about claim reimbursement is available on the PBS website.