I see that National is promising to raise Pharmac's budget to improve medicine access, but will do so by cutting foreign aid.
I'm tired of this zero-sum cruelty. Here's what should happen instead:
1. Rewrite Pharmac's terms of reference so that it has flexibility in its approach to medicine negotiations and so that it prioritises patient health instead of the austerity-style budget rules it has now (and maybe completely overhaul the Orwellian 'health economics' rules that they use to determine the value of your life.)
2. Yes, raise its budget (a long overdue step), but don't do so by cutting other healthcare or foreign aid or education. Do it by taxing f$%&king landlords and corporations. They don't die of preventable diseases.
3. And it should go without saying: fund *all* healthcare properly: medicine access is just one part of a system that is collapsing under the weight of neo-liberal greed. A pill doesn't replace a coordinated system of care.
