Hon David Cunliffe
Minister of Health
26 June 2008 Media Statement
Subsidised prescriptions to be made more accessible.
Minister of Health David Cunliffe said the Government is currently working through proposals to expand the number of
health professionals who can prescribe medications at a cost of $3 to patients.
Currently anyone enrolled in a PHO, of which four million New Zealanders are, can access prescriptions at a cost of just
$3.
Mr Cunliffe said the Government was now looking to increase the number of providers who can prescribe the subsidised
prescription to include any provider public or private who has an access arrangement or service agreement with a PHO or
District Health Board.
For example the expansion would ensure patients receiving prescriptions by after-hours providers who have access or
service agreements with DHBs or PHOs would also receive the $3 prescriptions.
Mr Cunliffe said the National Party’s press release today stating that hospital waiting lists were set to grow and
health insurance premium were set to sky rocket as a result as a change in government policy on pharmaceuticals was
complete and utter rubbish.
“The National Party’s statement is either deliberately misleading or ignorant.”
Mr Cunliffe said patients treated in private hospitals still received pharmaceutical subsidies although at a different
rate.
“The National Party are clearly getting desperate, on Friday that had the embarrassment of public back-down on GP fees
and today they make outlandish and ill-informed comments on prescriptions.”
Prescriptions written by private specialists who do not have an access agreement with a DHB cost on average $15 - there
is no plan to alter this.
ENDS