During his visit last week, United States President George W. Bush, is said to have raised the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) as a potential stumbling block in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with Australia.

The PBS provides Australians with prescription medicines at a low cost, through government subsidy and collective purchasing. Australians are regularly treated to medications that without subsidy and the government bulk purchasing, would cost well over one hundred dollars for less than twenty. But the powerful US pharmaceutical lobby has identified this as a key area for trade negotiation, claiming that the Australian government artificially deflates prices by exercising control over the import market.

To a degree this is true, and as a result we enjoy some of the most affordable pharmaceuticals in the world. However it is also true to say that the government is able to reduce the price that they pay, due to the quantity of each drug that they purchase.

The US Pharmaceutical companies claim that US consumers pay the bulk of research and development (R&D) costs, as countries like Australia, force their prices down leaving less money for R&D. It is an interesting argument from an industry that spends more on advertising than R&D, and as an industry is the single biggest contributor to the US political parties.

But in essence this is more than a debate on the correctness of the Pharmaceutical Industries claims; it is a debate on how far Australia will go to gain an FTA with the US and whether the benefits will outweigh the costs. Further, it is a debate on how much weight we as a nation, put on the health and well-being of our citizens.

The PBS and Medicare have been the corner stones of our public health system for decades. They ensure that everyone, regardless of their financial status, can receive the medical attention and drugs that they require in order to be well and continue to be contributing members of society. It ensures that diabetics can receive insulin; it ensures that asthmatics can receive ventolin; it insures that people with infections can receive antibiotics and it ensures that people with cancer can receive the appropriate treatment. Do we as a nation, want to go down the path of the US, where only the wealthy can afford the most modern and effective drugs? Do we want poor families with sick children to go without? A vox poll of Australians would, no doubt, show a resounding no.

All this on the background of increasing evidence that the US farm lobby and industry is very loathe in giving up any of the protection that the US government generously provides them.