Despite tears and panic from the pharmacy lobby, Labor’s medicine reforms won’t cause the world to end

The Pharmacy Guild claims there will be dire medicine shortages and that pharmacies will close. But do these claims stack up? Photograph: alvarez/Getty Images

Will the sky fall in? Will pharmacists go broke? Will there be overdoses or will we see everyday Aussies fighting each other to get their hands on essential medicines?

Not likely. Despite the panic, and even the tears, the average health consumer will find not much has changed when they go to fill their script for some of the most common medications come 1 September.