March 20, 2017
Scripts too dear for rural Maori
Te Taitokerau MP Kelvin Davis says prescription charges are a real impediment to healthcare.
Medication not being picked up or treatment courses not completed is regularly cited as a factor in poor Maori health outcomes.
Mr Davis says pharmacists in his electorate tell him they are subsidising patients who can't afford their prescriptions.
That means Maori aren't getting the medicines they need to get well.
"Before everyone jumps on their high horse and says they are probably smoking it and drinking it, that's not the case. we are talking about elderly, parents with young children, working people can't afford the medicines to keep them well, and we wonder why our Maori life expectancy is worse than non-Maori, this is one of the reasons, it comes down to good old fashioned poverty," Mr Davis says.
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