Indigenous Australians are taking more prescription medications for less cost under co-payment program

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-03-28 02:00

Australia; VIC; QLD

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More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are taking prescription medication, but they're spending less out of pocket after a decade of the government's Closing The Gap Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Co-Payment program, according to Australian research. The program, introduced in 2010, originally allowed Indigenous Australians with chronic disease or specific risk factors to register for reduced or waived co-payments for prescription medication, before it was expanded to virtually all Indigenous Australians in 2020. To evaluate its impact, researchers compared prescription medication usage and spending between about 250,0000 Indigenous Australians and a random sample of about 670,000 non-Indigenous Australians from 2012-2022. They say in that time, registration for the scheme among Indigenous Australians increased from 24.4% to 68%. Comparing 2012 to 2022, the researchers say average prescription medication use increased among Indigenous Australians at a higher rate than non-Indigenous, but spending on these medications declined among Indigenous Australians while it increased among non-Indigenous.