Not that I know of, medications make their way onto the Pharmaceutical Benefits schedule (PBS) schedule, so some new drugs aren't available for a short time - a

Not that I know of, medications make their way onto the Pharmaceutical Benefits schedule (PBS) schedule, so some new drugs aren't available for a short time - as someone else mentioned the government negotiates a fixed price for the drugs. You have to pay for drugs but there's a yearly cap of a few hundred dollars last time I was involved in it and you can claim that back, pensioners have a special low price per drug. There are some drugs that require the doctor to make a case for it - but thats a fairy routine matter. You do hear of people flying overseas for a special treatment (mainly experimental) thats not yet here, that isn't covered. Edit: an example - I had a checkup last year, got a bunch of tests done - total out of pocket for me was $30 or so, all the blood tests are free. The $30 was for the doctor, if I wanted to shop around there are free doctors that just charge the schedule price. I had to get an MRI about 7 years ago, now I could have waited, or got it in the hospital, but I chose to get it at a clinic, cause I wanted to get out of the hospital (which was free) - out of pocket was $800 for that.