It was a telling measure of the value Australians put in the country’s 77-year-old Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

In mid March, as the Albanese government looked for an issue to give it impetus for a soon-to-be-called election, it turned to the PBS; loved in Australia - and loathed by Pharmaceutical makers abroad - for delivering medicines at little more than one quarter the cost paid by Americans.

Prime Minister Albanese announced, if reelected, he’d reduce the scheme’s cap on prescriptions, from $31.60 to just $25.

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today

Opposition leader Peter Dutton immediately backed the plan.

“We support affordable medicines,” he told radio 2GB.

On complaints from US pharmaceutical companies about the PBS, the Prime Minister seized on the chance for a fight.

The PBS, he said was “a monument to the fairness at the heart of Australian life and we don’t negotiate our values.”

The PBS is political gold. Supporting it is a ‘no brainer’ for a federal politician.

Yet, five months on that threat from the US, has only intensified and it may yet test Australia’s love for the scheme.

For President Donald Trump, high prescription drug costs in America have become a cause.

Last month, the White House announced the President had written to 17 drug company CEOs demanding guarantees “they will not offer other developed nations better prices for new drugs than prices offered in the United States.”

According to a Trump White House fact sheet, “Americans are subsidising drug-manufacturer profits and foreign health systems.”

The statement did not mention Australia’s PBS, but if the White House staff had wanted an example, it would have been an obvious candidate.

“The PBS is a cornerstone of our Medicare system” according to Medicines Australia CEO, Liz de Somer, though that’s where her applause for the scheme ends.

Medicines Australia is the industry body representing many of the same pharmaceutical giants now targeted by the Trump White House.

According to Liz de Somer “we’re lagging behind other countries in the time it takes to make new medicines available on the PBS.”

“We are now taking an average of 466 days for a new innovative medicine to be listed on the PBS, and that’s after it’s already been deemed safe and effective by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.”

“We know these drugs are safe, we know they’re effective, but the government has not yet decided to purchase them and make them subsidised for patients. They take too long.”

Medicines Australia wants the 466 days average drug listing time, reduced dramatically - to just sixty days.

That would likely mean dramatically reducing the time taken by the government and companies to negotiate a price for their medicines. The end result could easily be a bigger bill for the Australian taxpayer. Currently, the PBS costs about $14 billion a year to run.

Of course, there is a human cost to delaying approval for medicines.

Medicines Australia points to the “many, many cancer medicines that are not available for patients” in Australia.

According to Liz de Somer: “We are getting one in four innovations listed on our PBS at the moment. That’s not good enough.”

“We know that people are waiting for these medicines. We know that they can see they’re available in other countries, and they don’t understand why they’re not made available here.”

There is an obvious profit motive for pharmaceutical companies in getting listed sooner and selling their product more quickly, but delays in the system have a human cost.

The Albanese government is currently considering recommendations to reform the scheme including measures designed to speed the process.