Budget 2024: Cancer patients promised access to medicines shouldn’t have to wait

EDITORIAL

“Lifting New Zealand’s game on cancer will be a priority for the next National Government.”

So said leader Christopher Luxon last August as he battled to win the hearts, minds – and votes – of New Zealanders.

National had pledged to fund 13 treatments “for lung, bowel, kidney, melanoma, and head and neck cancers that provide significant clinical benefits and are funded in Australia but not in New Zealand”.

”Under National, New Zealanders will not have to leave the country, mortgage their home, or start a Givealittle page to fund potentially lifesaving and life-extending treatments that are proven to work and are readily available across the Tasman,” Luxon said.

Unfortunately for cancer patients struggling to pay for medicines, they may now still need the above.

And tax cuts in Thursday’s Budget – offering average income households $2600 more a year – are unlikely to bridge the gap, given the hefty price tag for those drugs.

And to add insult to injury, Health Minister Shane Reti said the funding needed to supply the promised drugs won’t become available for another year at least.

It was supposed to be funded by reinstating the $5 prescription co-payment that the former Government removed. The current Government’s plan was to reinstate the co-payment from July 1 with exemptions for people under 14, over 65 and holders of Community Services Cards.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has expressed regret the new drugs couldn’t be funded in this Budget but restated her determination to see the promise honoured.

Reti was less regretful when speaking to the Herald, arguing the policy had always been that the drugs would be funded through revenue from the co-payments and that hadn’t taken effect yet.

”My expectation is that when we have revenue towards year one from co-payments, then we’ll look as to whether we need further revenue from Pharmac and I’ll have discussions with my colleagues and then we’ll work with Pharmac to meet the obligations that we said we would,” he said.

Cancer patients who were promised access to those drugs shouldn’t have to wait that long.

Some may have altered their plans (and sold their homes, moved overseas, started a Givealittle) if not for the pre-election promise.

As journalist and advocate Rachel Smalley said on Thursday: ”More than 25,000 New Zealanders will be diagnosed with cancer this year. Tens of thousands already have a diagnosis and were holding out for this Budget. What do they do now?”

And those patients – and their spouses, parents, siblings, children, friends and carers – are unlikely to forget the funding slight come 2026.