The government has announced what it says is the largest Pharmac budget in its history.
Associate Health Minister David Seymour said it will spend nearly $6.3 billion on the drug buying agency over the next four years.
The budget would also fix a $1.7b fiscal cliff left by the last government, he said.
Seymour accused Labour of allocating only $180 million annually when $400m a year was needed.
"This lack of funding jeopardised New Zealanders by potentially causing Pharmac to delist medicines, thereby reducing access to vital healthcare."
Funding for pharmaceuticals was "life or death, or the difference between a life of pain and suffering or living freely" for some New Zealanders.
"It was a priority for this government to find the additional $1.774 billion to prevent this from happening."
He said the government has committed the funding to make sure New Zealanders were able to access medicines they needed to live a fulfilling life.
Seymour also pointed to other moves including the return of pseudoephedrine cold and flu medicines "within weeks" and streamlining Pharmac's approval processes so it could be assessing a funding application at the same time as Medsafe was deciding on regulatory approval for a drug.
On Sunday he announced former deputy prime minister Paula Bennett had been appointed as Pharmac's board chair from next month.
Former Pharmac board chair Steve Maharey, who was previously a Labour minister, resigned from the role - and as the board chair of the Accident Compensation Corporation - in December.
