EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1982 NO. 372
NATIONAL HEALTH (PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS)
REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Health
Section 140 of the National Health Act 1953 provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
The Health Legislation Amendment Act (No. 2) 1982, (No. 112 of 1982), amended Part VII of the National Health Act 1953 in order to introduce a three-tier system of patient contribution under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme with effect from 1 January 1983. The Regulations are necessary to amend the National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations to give effect to this system.
Under this three-tier system, a new class of beneficiary is provided for in Section 84 of the Act, in addition to those persons eligible for pharmaceutical benefits free of charge or at the general contribution rate. This new class, the ‘Concessional Beneficiary’ is required
under Section 87 of the Act to pay an amount which has been set initially at 50% of the general contribution rate of $4.00 for each benefit item. Under Section 84 of the Act, a concessional beneficiary is defined as a person who is being paid an age, inavlid or widow’s pension, a supporting parent’s benefit, a sheltered employment allowance or a rehabilitation allowance under the Social Security Act; a service pension under the Repatriation Act 1920; or other persons who are disadvantaged within the meaning of the Health Insurance Act 1973; and their dependants, who would, if it were not for the application of the income test, be included within the definition of pensioner in the National Health Act.
To clearly identify patient eligibility under the new system, Section 84AA provides that it is the responsibility of the patient or his agent, either of whom must be at least 12 years of age, to establish eligibility by means of a declaration on the back of the prescription form.
Until the commencement of the amending provisions, persons other than pensioners must pay the prescribed maximum amount of $3.20 for a pharmaceutical benefit. As from 1 January 1983 the Act will no longer include
This adjustment of the charges is to recover part of the increasing costs involved in the education of overseas students in Australia.
Regulation 3 also ensures that certain students whose enrolment spans two or more consecutive calendar years (e.g. May to May or November to November) are not required to pay a charge in excess of that required for one calendar year in respect of the year in which the student commences the course and the year in which the student completes the course.
Sub-section 7(2) of the Act contains transitional provisions to exempt an overseas student from the charge so that where a student was enrolled in a prescribed course for a year before 1 January 1980, commenced or commences to undertake that course in that year and was or is enrolled in that course for each succeeding year, the charge is not payable in respect of his enrolment for any year in that course or any other prescribed course that, in accordance with the regulations, is to be treated for the purposes of the sub-section as being the same course as the first-mentioned course.
Sub-section 7A(3) of the Act, as amended, contains transitional provisions to exempt an overseas student from the charge so that where a student has commenced or commences and continues to undertake a course that is declared for the purposes of the Act, the charge is not payable in respect of his enrolment for any year in that course or any other prescribed course that, in accordance with the regulations, is to be treated for the purposes of the section as being the same course as the first-mentioned course.
Regulation 4 of the Overseas Students Charge Regulations provided, for the purposes of sub-section 7(2) of the Act, that certain courses are to be treated as being the same.
Regulation 4 amends regulation 4 of the Overseas Students Charge Regulations so that the concessions granted by sub-section 7A(3) of the Act are the same for students undertaking declared courses as those granted by sub-section 7(2) of the Act.
Under regulation 1 the abovementioned amendments come into operation on 1 January 1983.