Zizi Sparks: GST on medicine should be removed

Removing GST from medicine is a simple step. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION:

Donated goods and services, financial services, residential rents and sales, and fine metal.

Those are all things in New Zealand exempt from goods and services tax (GST).

The inclusion of fine metal blows my mind, when one other simple addition to that list could make a huge difference to people in need - both to their financial situations and health.

That addition is medicine.

Removing GST from medicine is a basic step that could make a huge difference for sick people.

In the past weeks, we have featured the stories of Isaac Tait and Paul Cherry.

Both men are self-funding treatments, for different illnesses and conditions, that are not publicly funded.

Paul Cherry has prostate cancer, and is spending $5500 every four weeks on a drug called Enzalutamide. To date, he has spent $212,000.

He says taking the GST off Enzalutamide would give him another two months of treatment. Even partial funding would give him more time.

Isaac Tait has cystic fibrosis. His parents are paying $396,000 per year to fund the "miracle drug" Trikafta. But $52,000 of that is GST.

The numbers are staggering. Removing GST could get Cherry, Tait and countless others more medicine, and more time.

It would even help those who aren't accessing medicines costing thousands of dollars.

On a much smaller scale, some people even struggle to afford to fill $5 prescriptions.

Earlier this year, a Rotorua pharmacist raised fresh calls to end the $5 prescription tax, as his shelves fill with uncollected medications.

He said the issue could be "easily fixed" if those with a Community Services Card did not have to pay the tax.

And on a larger scale, removing GST could have wider benefits.

In a recent opinion piece, cystic fibrosis sufferer Edward Lee said the current annual economic and social cost of cystic fibrosis was $116 million, and that fully funding Trikafta for people with cystic fibrosis would save the country at least $56m per year.

Think of what could be saved if the financial barriers to accessing medicine were reduced across the board.

Perhaps we would have fewer people flooding our emergency departments because they did not seek help earlier. Perhaps people would get critical diagnoses earlier, avoiding lengthy and costly hospital stays.

The removal of GST is a barrier to accessing medication that could be nullified.

It seems to me a simple move, but Finance Minister Grant Robertson has said there are no plans to make changes to GST.

According to Robertson, there were better ways the Government could help target need.

I question how making fine metals GST-free is better targeting needs.