Patient Voice Aotearoa is calling for financial relief for those caring for terminally or chronically ill whānau.
It’s kicking off its #MyLifeMatters roadshow in Palmerston North next Monday to raise awareness of the hidden costs of illness.
Spokesperson Malcolm Mulholland says getting a diagnosis of stage four cancer is to become aware your time on earth is limited.
“But then to beconfronted with an unfunded medicine that potentially will give you substantially more time and then having to think about how you’re going to pay for that. You kind of go to yourself, ‘I don’t want to bankrupt my own whānau. So what am I to do and like to live or am I to die?’” he says.
National says it will increase funding for Pharmac with money it collects by reintroducing prescription fees, while Labour says it has already given it more money in the Budget – but Mr Mulholland says the drug buying agency’s budget needs to more than double to keep up with comparable countries.
