OPINION: Hundreds of cancer patients and survivors will turn up at Parliament today to protest against Pharmac, the Government's drug buying agency.
This is getting all too common and all too regular.
Do you hear the people sing, singing the songs of angry men - and women - right across the country?
New Zealanders are sick of waiting for better drugs and a better variety of drugs. In fact we are dying of waiting and there is one way this Government can address it.
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Simply give the agency more money.
Just five percent of the total health budget is spent on drugs. Overseas in other comparable countries it's between 10 and 14 percent.
The stark reality is that other countries that we often compare ourselves to are spending hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars more to give their people a better shot at surviving these diseases.
Cancer is not going away, in fact, it's getting worse.
Experts say in 10 years it will affect one in two people.
Grant Robertson's well-being budget must increase funding.
It's no longer credible to keep it as it is. Aussies, Canadians and Brits are all in the five-star gold lounge getting world-class treatment.
Meanwhile, we're stuck outside in the rain being offered a three day old club sandwich. It's time to show the country that this month's well-being budget actually means people's lives improve, otherwise it's pure marketing nonsense, and cruelly misleading, too.
Duncan Garner is host of The AM Show.
