Blue wrong again on pharmaceuticals
National Associate Health Spokeswoman Jackie Blue has her facts wrong yet again, Health Minister Pete Hodgson said today.
Dr Blue has reacted to yesterday's announcement of a four year, $80 million baseline boost to the District Health Board's pharmaceuticals budget by claiming that it is somehow funded with a previous year's under-spend - a completely incorrect and intentionally misleading statement.
"Every year Pharmac works with DHBs to agree to the size of New Zealand's pharmaceutical budget, from which Pharmac purchases medicines for New Zealanders," Pete Hodgson says.
"It's true that this entire amount is not always spent as Pharmac's role is to negotiate the best price possible while expanding access to medicines, but unspent funds are retained by the DHBs and are available for other health services.
"The same process will be followed for setting next year's 2007/08 budget and even without yesterday's announcement, it's almost certain that the size of the agreed budget would keep increasing to keep up with escalating costs being experienced by all health systems around the world.
"The annual pharmaceuticals budget has already increased by over $80 million since 2002, and the 'underspend' over that time has been less than 2 per cent. Given the factors that influence the spend including seasonal trends and uncertainty of costs, an underspend at that rate is very low.
"DHBs and Pharmac have agreed to boost the budget every single year under this government and are currently working through the figures for next year.
"Whatever they decide, the government will be boosting that total with the new Budget investment. It's a real increase that will accelerate our work to expand access to treatments.
"I'll assume that Dr Blue's error resulted from a genuine lack of understanding because someone with knowledge about how the process works could not have made this mistake without intending to mislead the public."
Dr Blue has reacted to yesterday's announcement of a four year, $80 million baseline boost to the District Health Board's pharmaceuticals budget by claiming that it is somehow funded with a previous year's under-spend - a completely incorrect and intentionally misleading statement.
"Every year Pharmac works with DHBs to agree to the size of New Zealand's pharmaceutical budget, from which Pharmac purchases medicines for New Zealanders," Pete Hodgson says.
"It's true that this entire amount is not always spent as Pharmac's role is to negotiate the best price possible while expanding access to medicines, but unspent funds are retained by the DHBs and are available for other health services.
"The same process will be followed for setting next year's 2007/08 budget and even without yesterday's announcement, it's almost certain that the size of the agreed budget would keep increasing to keep up with escalating costs being experienced by all health systems around the world.
"The annual pharmaceuticals budget has already increased by over $80 million since 2002, and the 'underspend' over that time has been less than 2 per cent. Given the factors that influence the spend including seasonal trends and uncertainty of costs, an underspend at that rate is very low.
"DHBs and Pharmac have agreed to boost the budget every single year under this government and are currently working through the figures for next year.
"Whatever they decide, the government will be boosting that total with the new Budget investment. It's a real increase that will accelerate our work to expand access to treatments.
"I'll assume that Dr Blue's error resulted from a genuine lack of understanding because someone with knowledge about how the process works could not have made this mistake without intending to mislead the public."