14 March 2024
Brendon Mil s
[FYI request #25728 email]
Tēnā koe Brendon
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00038383
Thank you for your email which was transferred to us from the Ministry of Health on 25 February
2024, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for the following under the Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act):
•
Just what is subsidised by Pharmac and its predecessors. Like when you go to the doctor
and get prescribed medicine, and you take the script to the pharmacy.
I would like to know what the prescription charges per item were for each
year between 1990 and 2023.
Response Information about the Pharmaceutical Schedule is available online here:
https:/ pharmac.govt.nz/pharmaceutical-schedule
This website provides information about all medicines funded in New Zealand.
Table one below provides information about legislation for co-payments in New Zealand.
Table one: Historical information regarding changes in laws for co-payment amounts.
Period
Issue / Event
April 2004
Implementation of $3 maximum co-payments for enrolled Access funded
PHO patients, and enrolled PHO patients aged 6-17
July 2004,
2005, 2006,
Implementation of $3 maximum co-payments for enrolled PHO patients.
2007 and
Roll out was staggered over five years by age in the following order: 65+,
September
18-24, 45-64, 25-44, all remaining groups.
2008
January 2013 Co-payments increased from $3 prescription charge to $5 per item up to
a maximum of 20 items
July 2023
Co-payments for prescriptions from an approved provider reduced to $0.
Table two below provides information about the total amount which was paid as patient
contributions towards all publicly funded dispensings in New Zealand between 1996 and 2023.
This information comes from Health NZ’s Pharmaceutical Collection. Your request for data from
1990 to 1995 is declined under section 18(g) of the Act as this data is not held by Health NZ.
Please note:
• The data includes pharmaceuticals dispensed where the pharmacist made a claim between
1996 and 2023.
• The year is derived from the date a claim was made by the pharmacist.
• Administrative and bulk dispensings data has been excluded.
• The Pharmaceutical Collection only counts publicly funded, community dispensed
pharmaceuticals and Pharmaceutical Cancer Treatments (PCT); It does not count non-PCT
hospital dispensings.
• The data excludes records where there was no NHI number recorded against the
dispensing.
• Although we've reviewed the provisional data presented here, it has not undergone full
quality assurance, and this data could have unexpected errors that may be picked up
through the rigorous data quality checks publication datasets undergo. As a result,
published data may differ from the provisional data presented here. Published data should
be considered the most accurate source and used where possible.
• Data is provisional and has not undergone full quality assurance.
Table two: Total patient contribution towards all publicly funded medicines dispensings by year
between 1996 and 2023
YEAR
TOTAL PATIENT CONTRIBUTIONS
1996
$90,404,201.21
1997
$88,461,879.84
1998
$79,674,510.62
1999
$84,016,765.37
2000
$79,934,415.11
2001
$79,198,678.68
2002
$82,104,972.80
2003
$86,773,405.66
2004
$85,087,075.90
2005
$81,043,674.74
2006
$76,635,783.86
2007
$70,569,629.58
2008
$70,416,903.41
2009
$71,096,680.21
2010
$74,603,536.62
2011
$78,139,633.88
2012
$79,002,705.10
2013
$130,313,615.40
2014
$132,311,586.91
2015
$132,252,697.06
2016
$131,718,053.12
2017
$135,299,129.15
2018
$138,510,777.28
2019
$142,820,224.83
2020
$143,911,451.84
2021
$149,368,857.25
2022
$156,376,818.50
2023
$99,526,862.67
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. Al requester data, including your name and
contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Gaynor Bradfield
Group Manager Business Support,
Business Services - Data and Digital
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand