Medicare and PBS usage, 2003-2012

Medicare is the Australian Government?s universal health insurance scheme and reimburses the cost of primary care services principally provided by General Practitioners (GP). The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is a parallel publicly funded plan, which subsidises a wide range of prescribed medicines. In 2012, a total payment of $131 million ($100 million in Medicare and $31 million in PBS) was made on behalf of the Northern Territory (NT) residents