Expenditure on palliative care-related medications

Box 1: Australian Government’s expenditure through Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

Under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS), the Australian Government sets a maximum ‘patient co-payment’ amount that people pay towards the cost of their medicines:

  • If a prescription is priced over the co-payment threshold, it is considered as ‘over co-payment’ or a 'subsidised prescription', the Australian Government pays pharmacies the difference between a consumer’s co‑payment and the PBS price of a medicine, as listed on the Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits.
  • If a prescription is priced below the co-payment threshold, it is classified as an ‘under co-payment prescription’, the consumer pays the total cost, and the government does not contribute.

The maximum co-payment a patient pays depends on their level of entitlement, which is determined by the patient’s concessional status and whether they have qualified for the PBS safety net. Current and historical co‑payments can be found on the PBS website.

Note that some medications prescribed for palliative care purposes are not included in this report, such as the 'over the counter' (OTC) medicines, which means that people do not need a prescription from the doctor to access them. For further details on the coverage and scope of PBS and RPBS, see Technical information: Data sources – May release.

In 2022–23 (Figure 4):

  • The Australian Government spent $36.6 million on palliative care-related prescriptions from PBS Palliative Care Schedule, equivalent to an average of $81 per patient.
  • Pain relief prescriptions made up 87% ($31.7 million) of this expenditure, followed by prescriptions for gastrointestinal symptoms (7.9% or $2.9 million) and prescriptions for neurological symptoms (3.4% or $1.2 million).
  • The Australian Government recorded $20.4 million in spending on palliative care-related medications prescribed by palliative medicine specialists – 3 in 5 (59% or $12.0 million) were from the General schedule, 6.1% ($1.2 million) were from the Palliative Care Schedule, and 35% ($7.1 million) were from other schedules, such as the Repatriation Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits, the Efficient Funding of Chemotherapy program and the Highly Specialised Drugs program (Table 6).

Between 2016–17 and 2022–23 (Figure 4):

  • Consistent with the increase in the number of palliative care-related prescriptions from PBS Palliative Care Schedule, the Australian Government expenditure on these medications more than doubled, increasing from $14.3 million to $36.6 million (or from $17.0 million to 36.6 million after adjusting for inflation). The annual increase was steeper in 2021–22 and 2017–18 (50% and 43% increase, respectively), compared to other years (around 1–8% increase). However, after adjusting for inflation, these increases were 44% in 2021–22 and 41% increase in 2017–18, respectively, compared with 1% decrease to 6% increase for other years.
  • The expenditure per patient dispensed with at least one palliative care-related prescription increased from $29 to $81, with the largest increase in 2021–22 (a 70% increase from $45 to $76), followed by increases in 2017–18 (a 29% increase from $29 to $37) and in 2020–21 (a 16% increase from $38 to $45) – consistent with the pattern for the average number of prescriptions per person for these medications.

For further details on palliative care-related medications from PBS Palliative Care Schedule and people receiving them, see Palliative care-related medications. For more information on the changes in PBS Palliative Care Schedule from June 2021, see 2023 edition of Palliative care-related medications report.

Figure 4: Expenditure on palliative care-related medications from PBS Palliative Care Schedule

Figure 4.1: This interactive bar graph shows expenditure and expenditure per patient for palliative care-related medications in 2022–23. 

Figure 4.2: This line graph shows expenditure for palliative care-related medications by medication group between 2016–17 and 2022–23.

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