Govt could make further cuts to fund cancer drugs
Health Minister Dr 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 $75m per year. This $75m, each year for four years, is what’s been set aside to fund the 13 treatments.
Asked if he would make further health cuts if this is not enough, Reti said the Government would cross that bridge when it came to it.
“We can't look into the future as to what future Budget bids might be.”
Reti said he hoped to have the prescription copayment fee reintroduced this year, but there is still no timeline 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 Stuff 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.”
Oncologists have called for a review of the list, and said the Government “left Pharmac completely hamstrung” by announcing pre-election that New Zealand would fund particular drugs before the drug-buying agency had begun the bargaining process.
Some of the treatments have either been previously declined by Pharmac, or never been assessed by Pharmac — a process which can take years.
Reti said that would not necessarily slow down progress, but placed the onus back on the Crown agencies.
“I didn’t select these medicines. The Cancer Control Agency did in collaboration with Pharmac. They'll advise as to what the best use of funding would be.
“I can't control if [drug] companies don't put in an application. But we'll take the lead from the Cancer Control Agency and from Pharmac.”
The non solid tumour that is the blood cancer conditions weren’t actually assessed, so the myelomas, the leukemias... I'd like to think they might incorporate that advice as well.“
The Cancer Control Agency has been approached for comment.
Official figures show that in 2018, more than 2000 of the lives lost to cancer could have been avoided through public health and prevention measures and effective and timely healthcare.
Reti defended the scrapping of smoking laws that were yet to take effect, which more than 9000 doctors have urged the Government to reinstate.
He said the recent drops in adult smoking were some of the largest ever reductions without the new regulations. “And so the inclination of this Government is to continue to move that along.”
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, Reti said: “Smoking rates have been falling anyway and if that trajectory continues, one would hope that lung cancer deaths decrease as well.”