In 2019, the Medicare Benefit Schedule Review Taskforce recommended a 69% cut to the rebate for eye injections used to treat several blinding conditions, including wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Though no decision has been made on the matter, it is still being considered.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra this week, Ita Buttrose AC OBE, on behalf of MDFA, urged the government to reject the proposal.
She warned that many older Australians will no longer be able to afford the vital treatment if the government adopts the recommendation.
Australia is a world leader in the treatment of wet AMD. Patients receive injections to the eye every four to six weeks for an indefinite period, so the cost can stack up quickly.
Buttrose called on the government to instead consider MDFA’s proposal to improve access to sight-saving treatment.
Approximately 80,000 vulnerable Australians stop eye injection treatment within five years, due in large part to cost.
“Out-of-pocket costs for this treatment are already prohibitive,” Buttrose said.
“This translates to an additional 47,000 Australians experiencing severe vision loss and blindness within the next five years,” Ms Buttrose said.
“This rebate reduction, if approved, will deliver some savings to government, but will effectively be cost shifting to other parts of the health and welfare system.”
Buttrose made the comments during the inaugural Ita Buttrose Oration, an initiative of MDFA aimed at presenting ideas about healthy ageing in Australia. The speech was held to mark Macula Month, which has been hosted by the MDFA in May for the last two decades.
