National has promised to scrap free prescriptions and restore the $5 fee but Māori Pharmacists Association Ngā Kaitiaki o Te Puna Rongoā o Aotearoa head Mariana Hudson says this will be a huge step backwards.
“Many, many steps backwards,” she says.
Under National, only Gold and Community Card holders will be exempt from paying for prescriptions.
The owner of Horouta Pharmacy in Tūranga, Kevin Pēwhairangi, says the rural families will be most affected.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that people that are on benefits, people that are elderly and on pensions, people that get money from the government, have to give it back to the government,” he says.
Hudson adds, “It could work if it becomes a targeted approach but how it is actually created, monitored and evaluated is a very very important part of that.”
National wants to use the extra $280 million a year from prescription fees to help fund cancer medicines.
“I don’t think it is a valid reason,” Pēwhairangi says.
“I think they need to find the money from somewhere else because yes those families do need the cancer treatments but not at the sacrifice of what is an issue right now.”
