Govt could make further cuts to fund cancer drugs
Health Minister Shane Reti has not ruled out making further cuts to health funding to pay for the National Party’s campaign promise to buy 13 new cancer treatments – a list he now says may change.
As it stands, the list includes a range of drugs to treat lung, bowel, bladder, kidney, skin and head and neck cancers, most of which are focused on prolonging life, rather than treating the disease.
The drugs were to be funded through reinstating the $5 prescription fee for most people, which would leave net gains of $75 million a year. This $75m, each year for four years, is what has been set aside to fund the cancer treatments.
Asked if he would make further health cuts if that was not enough, Reti said: “We can't look into the future as to what future Budget bids might be.”
Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verall said National could not afford its policies, due to its campaign promise of tax cuts.
“This is the cost of National’s cost cuts that never added up and mean the health system is robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Reti said he hoped to have the prescription co-payment fee reintroduced this year, but there was still no time line on when the new drugs may be available.
Meanwhile, cancer patients are dying trying to access drugs, while others have no options to begin with.
“As soon as we can bubble up that funding then we can look at deploying it,” Reti said.
“We’ll know [based on] what we get from that whether we need to add further money to increase cancer drugs.”
But Reti told The Post the list of new treatments may change, given it is 18 months old. He expected to receive advice from Te Aho o Te Kahu – the Cancer Control Agency “as to what’s still applicable”.
The move follows calls to review the list from an oncologist who helped write the list, Dr Chris Jackson. He said this was the first time Reti had signalled updating it.
“It’s good to know they won’t be sticking to those 13 drugs ... they need to be out of Pharmac’s way.”
Jackson had warned that National had left Pharmac “completely hamstrung” by announcing it would fund particular drugs before the drug-buying agency had begun the bargaining process.
Reti said the Cancer Control Agency and Pharmac were best placed to advise to the best use of funding.
The Cancer Control Agency confirmed it had prioritised the advice and would complete it “as soon as practicable”.
Reti defended the scrapping of smoking laws that were yet to take effect, which more than 9000 doctors have urged the Government to reinstate.
Health agencies have said up to 75% of deaths from lung cancer, which has abysmal five-year survival rates, could be reduced, mainly by cutting smoking.
Asked if he accepted the changes could further impact lung cancer survival rates he said: “Smoking rates have been falling anyway and if that trajectory continues, one would hope that lung cancer deaths decrease as well.”
Verrall labelled this “rubbish”.
Reti also twice said smoking reduction was the job of Associate Health Minister Casey Costello. Verrall said this was an excuse. “You can’t just wash your hands of something like that ... that would have saved $5.25b in health costs,” she said.
Reti said health workforce gaps were the key barrier to progressing the Government’s ambitions, including the commitment to extending the breast cancer screening age to 74. “I definitely will do it in the term of this Government and I'm ambitious and impatient and want to do it much sooner.”
Recruitment, retention, and remuneration were his biggest priorities on fixing workforce shortages in health.