ACT sets achievable path to close medicines gap with Australia

“No Kiwi should have to empty their savings, uproot their family, or leave the country to get medicines Australians receive as a matter of course,” says ACT Leader David Seymour, announcing ACT’s policy for medicines funding.

“We must prioritise medicines funding to end this unnecessary trauma.

“For the past three years that I’ve been responsible for Pharmac and Medsafe, I’ve met people desperate and dying, replied to hundreds of letters begging for relief, and felt a pain that nearly every Kiwi family has known. Often the medicine they need is on Pharmac’s Options for Investment list, waiting for funding.

“Too often, I’ve had to explain the answer is no. My hands are tied because Pharmac just doesn’t have the money. Sure, we’ve done a lot to make more medicines available – more than any recent Government – but that’s cold comfort if it’s not enough for your loved one.

“When it comes to making a policy promise on medicines funding, I know they can’t be made lightly, and they must be achievable. Ideally, on something as sensitive as medicines funding, a policy will achieve cross-party consensus.

“For many years desperate people have been burned by politicians making unachievable promises. Today I am launching a policy I hope every party will support. It’s a clear and simple idea that will close our medicines funding gap with Australia.

“ACT will put New Zealand on a pathway to close the 7 per cent medicines gap with Australia.

“New Zealand currently spends just 4.9 per cent of its health budget on medicines. Australia spends 12.2 per cent, while the OECD average is 13.3 per cent.

“Specifically, we propose increasing the percentage of the health budget that is spent on medicines by one percentage point each year until parity in 2033.

“That means more New Zealanders getting medicines Pharmac already says are worth funding, instead of sitting on waiting lists because the budget has run out.

“Pharmac is not the problem. It negotiates hard, secures low prices, and identifies medicines that deliver real health gains. The problem is that governments have forced it to deliver first-world healthcare on a second-rate medicines budget.

“In fact, Pharmac is being punished for its cost effectiveness. This year health got a $1.5 billion funding uplift in Budget 26. Pharmac got $13.5 million. Pharmac sweats every dollar for results, but the wider system doesn’t face the same discipline. Under ACT’s policy, the medicines budget would have increased by around $320 million in Budget 26, and Health still would have increased by $1.2 billion.”

ACT Health spokesperson Todd Stephenson says:

“Australia funds 142 modern medicines that are not funded in New Zealand, and 38 per cent of those are cancer medicines.

“These numbers represent New Zealand families facing serious illness who are forced to raise money, drain their savings, travel overseas, or go without treatments that are routinely available across the Tasman.

“ACT’s policy will steadily close that gap without increasing the overall health budget beyond what is already expected.

“Health spending has grown by an average of eight per cent each year for the last five years. ACT would direct one percentage point of that growth toward medicines each year.

“This is a gradual shift in the makeup of a growing health budget. It will not require additional taxes, and it will not reduce the size of the non-medicines health budget, because it will be funded from future increases.

“ACT's policy spends smarter and recognises the value of modern medicines. Every hospital admission prevented is better for the patient and better for taxpayers. It means more treatments that keep people healthier, and often means people can keep working and paying taxes.”