Chemists to lose dollar-discount option as government bows to Pharmacy Guild pressure

Chemist Warehouse will be stripped of its ability to give its customers $1 off their medicines, under an Albanese government policy to appease the influential Pharmacy Guild in tense negotiations over the next five years of pharmacy funding.Chemist Warehouse will lose its discounting power in a move that has pleased the Pharmacy Guild, whose small business members have been forced to compete.

But while those medicine payments are temporarily frozen, the budget’s fine print revealed the $1 discount that pharmacies can volunteer to give their customers will be gradually indexed “until the $1 discount has been reduced from $1 to zero”. The Pharmacy Guild, which represents community pharmacies, fought against the policy because its members would not be able to compete. It also argued the measure undermined the universality of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and would create disparities between patients in city and rural areas.

Tuesday’s policy marks a victory for the guild, which has been locked in negotiations with the federal government sinceyear raised its ire by introducing 60-day prescriptions, halving the frequency at which people on 325 common medicines needed to visit the chemist.

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