$1.8b for Pharmac keeps the lights on, CEO says
Pharmac’s chief executive says a $1.77 billion funding announcement means critical medicines will remain funded and plans to fund life-changing blood glucose monitors for diabetes will be able to go ahead.
In an announcement yesterday morning, Associate Health Minister David Seymour said the Government would invest an extra $1.77b over four years to make up a shortfall left by the previous government.
But Pharmac boss Sarah Fitt confirmed the money would simply keep the lights on and that more funding would be needed in May’s Budget if it wanted to go further.
“Our focus really at the moment is on the funding for the medicines budget. So this is the first step and obviously Budget ‘24 will determine whether there’s any funding for new medicines,” Fitt said.
“We have got certainty for funding of the medicines that we currently fund, and also we can finalise the processes we've got out of consultation at the moment around the CGMs (continuous glucose monitors) and myeloma medicines ... we’ve got that budget for next year.”
Diabetes NZ has labelled the plan to fund continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) and insulin pumps for people with type 1 diabetes as life-changing for the 18,000 New Zealanders with the autoimmune condition.
The funding announcement means Pharmac will receive a total of $6.29b over four years from the Government, in what Seymour said was the agency’s largest budget.
But Ah-Leen Rayner, chief executive of Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, said the announcement doesn’t touch the broader problem of patients who are denied new, modern drugs.
“The $1.774b investment won’t cover the 13 new cancer drugs National promised it would fund, or any other new treatment on Pharmac’s Options for Investment list.”
Labour had allocated $180m a year to ensure recently added treatments could continue to be funded, but Seymour said the true cost was more than $400m a year. “The previous government wasn’t honest with the books,” Seymour said, at a Medicines Access Summit at Parliament yesterday.
“This lack of funding jeopardised New Zealanders by potentially causing Pharmac to delist medicines, thereby reducing access to vital healthcare.”
But Labour’s health spokesperson Dr Ayesha Verrall hit back, saying the actual figure published in the pre-election update was $724m and Seymour was trying to gloss over $1.05b of increased costs at Pharmac.
“David Seymour needs to explain why an additional estimated $1.05b needs to be spent for the Pharmac budget to stand still.”
Verrall took a stab at the Government’s plan to fund a list of cancer treatments by bringing back $5 prescription fees, which would “destroy access to medicine for millions of people”. “Today’s talk of fiscal cliffs is merely scapegoating for the funding the Government won’t deliver because they have prioritised tax cuts over properly funding health,” Verrall said.
Seymour said the Government has come to “a very sound position” on prescription fees and the effects they would have on revenue, but would not provide more detail before the Budget in May.