Most Australians wouldn't know it, but each year they pay a little bit more for taxpayer-subsidised medicines.
Labor wants to keep it that way while the coalition wants a one-off increase to the amount we contribute towards the cost of every prescription.
Under a plan, first included in the Abbott government's infamous 2014 budget and retained in the latest edition, most Australians would pay an extra $5 for each prescription under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Concession card holders would pay an extra 80 cents.
As well, the safety net threshold - above which medicines become wholly subsidised for concession card holders and general patients are charged the concessional co-payment - would be increased.
As it stands now:
* General patient co-payment $38.30.
* Concessional patient co-payment $6.20.
* General patient safety net $1475.70
* Concessional patient safety net $372.
They are indexed to inflation with the latest increase taking effect on January 1.
The coalition included its co-payment increases in its first budget, a measure blocked in the Senate by Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers.
It was also included in the May 3 budget, but is yet to be legislated.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has costed the Labor policy at $971 million over four years.
"The sort of patients we are talking about helping here are people with asthma or children of parents with asthma, patients who suffer from depression and other forms of mental illness," Labor leader Bill Shorten told reporters while campaigning in Sydney's inner west on Sunday.
Medications would only increase in line with inflation.
Health Minister Sussan Ley took Labor to task over its record on listing new medicines on the PBS in government.
"We have listed three times as many drugs as Labor," she told reporters in Melbourne, citing as examples expensive treatments for melanoma and Hepatitis C.
In government, Labor blocked new drugs from being subsidised on the PBS for patients suffering asthma, chronic pain, and mental health conditions.
Australians risked paying as much as $150,000 for drugs to treat melanoma, $82,000 to treat breast cancer and $10,000 to treat common eye disease, Ms Ley said.
