Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is adamant the National Party will deliver its pre-election promise of funding 13 new cancer treatments.
Luxon told AM this morning his Government will deliver on its commitment to fund the drugs after outrage that no funding was allocated in Budget 2024.
"We remain committed to getting those treatments. It's a promise we are going to deliver on," Luxon told co-host Lloyd Burr.
National campaigned on funding treatments offered in Australia that help battle liver, lung, bowel, kidney, and head and neck cancers, as well as melanoma.
It was expected to cost $280 million over four years and was supposed to be funded by reinstating the $5 prescription payment.
However, in this year's Budget, prescription fees were reinstated but there was no funding allocated to the 13 drugs. Instead, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti said the Government anticipates future Budgets will help "widen medicine access, including to cancer treatments".
The Government blamed a $1.77 billion funding "cliff" in drug-buying agency Pharmac's budget left by the previous Labour Government for not funding the new cancer drugs in this year's Budget. It said Pharmac had been "short-funded", so the Government had to fork out a billion dollars or Kiwis would have lost funding for treatments like asthma inhalers and diabetes medication.
However, on Monday, Luxon said it was the procurement process that was holding up the funding.
"It is taking a little bit more time than we wanted," Luxon said.
"I can reassure you work is already underway looking at a series of options of how we deliver those cancer treatments we want to be able to bring to New Zealanders."
He indicated that the Government will be making an announcement regarding the funding soon.
It comes as 15 cancer charities published an open letter to the Coalition Government on Tuesday morning to urgently deliver on its funding commitment.
"Patients don't have a year to wait and will sadly have to look at all the heartbreaking scenarios your party wanted to put an end to. Bowel cancer patients have already been waiting for 22 years, the last time a new medicine was funded to treat them," the letter read.
"Unlike other promises, lives will be lost if these medicines are not funded."
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