Health Legislation Amendment (Prescribing of Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2025; Third Reading

Summary

This amendment changes how medicines are added to Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), which is the system that subsidises drug costs for patients. The change modifies the existing Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Act 1947 to adjust the rules around which doctors can prescribe these subsidised medicines and potentially how quickly new drugs can enter the scheme. The practical effect is that patients may have faster or easier access to certain medications, depending on how the prescribing rules are loosened or tightened, though without the introduction speech, the specific direction and impact of these changes cannot be fully detailed.

What happens at this stage

The final vote in this chamber on the bill as a whole, after all amendments have been considered. If it passes, the bill moves to the other chamber to go through the same process. If both chambers have already agreed to identical text, the bill proceeds directly to Royal Assent.

Next: The other chamber, which runs the same process from First Reading, or Royal Assent if both chambers have already agreed