THE cost of quitting smoking could fall by as much as $112 a month, with the Government considering a subsidy for nicotine patches to benefit the nation's three million smokers.
The patches currently cost smokers trying to quit up to $118 a month. The subsidy would cut the price to $33.40 for general consumers and just $5.40 for pensioners and welfare recipients.
The Government's expert advisory body on medicines, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), recommended at its March meeting that the Government subsidise nicotine patches.
"The reduction of chronic disease caused by smoking is one key focus of the national health taskforce on prevention," the PBAC said.
The committee said the subsidy should cover a maximum of 12 weeks treatment in a 12-month period.
The Cancer Council, the Heart Foundation, the Australian Council on Smoking and Health and Quit Victoria asked the expert body to subsidise the patches for pensioners and welfare recipients, and patients who could not use subsidised quit smoking medicines.
The call for the subsidy comes as the Federal Government this month imposed a $2.16 hike in the tobacco tax, lifting the price of a pack of cigarettes to more than $15.
Bureaucrats are understood to be negotiating with manufacturers to determine what price the Government would pay for the patches. If the total cost of the subsidy can be brought under $10 million a year Health Minister Nicola Roxon will be able to approve it without seeking Cabinet approval.
The new $5 billion tobacco tax hike is forecast to reduce the number of smokers by 87,000 in the first year.
Many of these people would be relying on aids such as nicotine patches to help them give up.
Smoking results in 15,000 Australian deaths annually.
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