Tribune’s note

Assistant Minister Rebecca White used a one-year anniversary milestone to publish aggregate access and savings data from the $792.9 million women's health package, signalling that PBS listings remain the government's primary instrument for reducing out-of-pocket costs for women. Since the package was introduced, more than 805,000 women have accessed over 3 million cheaper scripts covering new contraceptives, menopausal hormone therapies and endometriosis treatments [TA-260501-health-fd0cfb8ae08a].

The headline figure for contraceptives alone is substantial: four new listings added in 2025 enabled more than 382,000 women to save $36.0 million across over 854,000 scripts [TA-260501-health-fd0cfb8ae08a]. The endometriosis story is equally significant in unit-cost terms — Ryeqo®, which previously cost patients up to $2,700 per year, now reaches over 8,500 women through around 40,000 cheaper scripts, with cumulative savings of $7.6 million [TA-260501-health-fd0cfb8ae08a].

Slinda®, the oral contraceptive listed one year ago today, dropped from $250 per year to a maximum of $25 per script — or $7.70 on a concession card — a price reduction of more than 90 per cent at the concession rate. The PM media release presents these figures as evidence that PBS listing decisions directly translate to consumer savings at scale, and the framing is consistent with the portfolio's stated approach of using the PBS to expand choice and lower cost rather than relying on out-of-pocket supplement schemes.

No parliamentary record was present for this note window; the activity sits entirely in ministerial communications.

Primary records (1)

The official records this note draws on — the raw primary documents themselves, as published.

MediaOne year on: millions saved on cheaper medicines for Australian womenRebecca WhiteFriday 1 May 2026