The Commonwealth Department of Health proposed to reduce the cost to the patient of a prescription for oral contraceptives from $1.00 to 50 cents. Surely it would be more rational if drugs essential to health or life were available for this reduced amount? It is debatable that oral contraceptives have a place on the Pharmaceutical Benefits List when their cost on a private prescription is less than a packet of cigarettes each week. (Approximately $1.20 per month for a 6 months pack or $1.40 if obtained monthly.) The proposed reduction to the patient from $1.00 to 50 cents followed correspondence in the daily Press pointing out that the cost as a benefit could be more than a private prescription suggesting the department was not aware of the dispensed price. A further disturbing aspect is the possibility that the money required to supply oral contraceptives may be diverted from drugs used to treat illness. Perhaps the current list may not be curtailed but desirable liberalization of certain restricted drugs or new additions to the list may be reduced. It is probably time the whole Pharmaceutical Benefits List was reconstructed with removal of all those items costing less than or close to $1.00 and those substances which are of doubtful effeciency. It could be cheaper and better to revert to the original concept of this scheme as a free supply of proven essential drugs. (FULL TEXT)