Removing prescription fee in Budget “the obvious thing to do”: pharmacists

Hopes are high the Government will include the removal of the “patient co-payment” prescription fee in this week’s Budget, says Prescription Access Initiative (PAI) pharmacists, after politicians on both sides of the House publicly supported the fee removal earlier this month.

“The many reasons to urgently remove the fee are compelling,” said PAI spokesperson Vicky Chan.

Research shows removing the fee of $5 per item would reduce hospitalisations in the over-stretched health system; increase well-being, equity and productivity by lowering illness, pain and related work absences; support the survival of vital community pharmacy services; and ease the cost-of-living crisis for everyone.

“Any one of these reasons on its own is enough to recommend prescription fee removal. All together, they are an avalanche of neon signs, all pointing to fee removal,” Chan said.

Green MP Chloe Swarbrick and Act MP Brooke Van Velden both said they support prescription co-payment removal recently on TVNZ Breakfast. “Such a rare agreement between Green and Act MPs shows fee removal has widespread approval,” said Chan. “It’s the obvious thing to do.”

Van Velden described large corporates paying the fee themselves in a loss leader strategy as “anti-competitive”. Some community pharmacies have already closed as a result, said Chan. “And that means communities lose services such as medicine delivery, personalised health advice and vaccinations. Universal fee removal would help prevent this.”

The Government has had enough time to put prescription fee removal in this year’s Budget, said Chan. “Months ago, University of Otago released research showing the prescription fee is leading to large numbers of unnecessary hospitalisations.

“Meanwhile, PAI’s own recent pharmacist survey showed people are ending up with amputations due to diabetes complications because the co-payment fee makes their insulin prescriptions unaffordable.”

Removing the fee is likely to be fiscally neutral, or even positive once productivity is taken into account, said Chan. “And the relief of prescription co-payment fee removal would be immediate for everyone. We could focus on health and wellbeing. It’s a popular move, and it deserves to be.”

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