Election 2023

Patient advocates want Pharmac to adopt an open-door policy as the ACT Party leader says the agency’s culture must change

REMOVING THE $5 prescription fee has made healthcare in New Zealand demonstrably better and pharmacists think the National Party’s plan to reinstate the fees for most people will have “disastrous” consequences, a survey conducted by the Prescription Access Initiative shows.

New health minister Shane Reti is working on bringing back the $5 prescription copayment for most people but is not sure exactly when it will happen 

A retired pharmacist says allowing the sale of pseudoephedrine products would be a “backwards step” and would lead to armed hold-ups, whereas a practising pharmacist who experienced a hold-up welcomes the return of the products, saying they were an effective tool in pharmacists’ arsenal

The incoming coalition Government is committed to bringing back the $5 prescription fee, ACT Party leader David Seymour says

Removing the $5 prescription fee has made healthcare in New Zealand demonstrably better and pharmacists think National’s plan to restore the fees for most people will have “disastrous” consequences, a survey conducted by the Prescription Access Initiative shows

A pharmacy group that lobbied for the $5 prescription fee to be dropped is optimistic that the final election result will make it harder for the new Government to reintroduce the fee

National, ACT and New Zealand First all have health policies they have been hawking on the hustings. Once coalition talks start, some of those policies will make it through the horse-trading, some will fall prey to political expediency. Stephen Forbes examines the policies and promises on offer

Andrew Little was health minister from November 2020 to 1 February 2023 and, as such, shepherded into being the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act, enabling the current health reforms

The Prescription Access Initiative is holding on to hope that the change in Government may not result in the $5 prescription fee being reintroduced