Budget 2023 has nothing in it for women's health

Responding to today’s Budget announcement, Ah-Leen Rayner, chief executive of Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, says: “It’s hard to see how the Government is serious about its women’s health strategy when this Budget has nothing in it for women’s health – let alone breast cancer.

“In this cost of living crisis, the continued refusal to extend the screening age shows the Government expects our older women to continue paying for a life-saving service which should be freely available to them. Extending the breast screening programme to 74 is a solution for the immediate problem of women needlessly dying from breast cancer, yet the Government still won’t see this as a priority.

“With no new money for Pharmac, New Zealand remains at the bottom of the OECD on drug funding. This Budget leaves hundreds of desperate women with incurable breast cancer unable to access medicines that could give them more years to live.”