National is promising an additional $604 million for Pharmac’s medicines budget and wider access to cancer screening if it leads the next government, with part of the health...
National is promising an additional $604 million for Pharmac’s medicines budget and wider access to cancer screening if it leads the next government, with part of the health package funded by cuts to foreign aid outside the Pacific.
Leader Christopher Luxon and health spokesperson Simeon Brown announced the policy at a cancer treatment room in a private hospital in Epsom, Auckland, on Tuesday, 6 October.
The package includes earlier bowel cancer screening, an extension of breast screening, free cervical screening and pilots for prostate and lung cancer screening. National also wants to expand access to advanced cancer treatments and increase clinical trials in New Zealand.
Brown said the additional Pharmac funding would allow the agency to fund more medicines and widen access to treatments already publicly funded.
“We will largely pay for it by reducing foreign aid and associated administration costs by 10 percent, while fully protecting aid to the Pacific,” he said.
Luxon defended the proposed shift, saying National wanted to prioritise people facing serious illnesses in New Zealand.
“New Zealanders facing cancer and other serious illnesses should be prioritised ahead of overseas aid expenditure,” he said.
According to the figures reported by RNZ, the full package would cost $823.8 million, including $41.5 million in capital spending.
A proposed $431.2 million reduction in foreign aid spending would offset part of that cost. After those savings, the package would add $351.1 million to operating expenditure, with capital spending accounted for separately.
The proposed aid reductions would therefore cover part of the wider health package rather than its entire cost.
National said Pacific aid would be protected, with reductions directed towards assistance outside the region and associated administration costs. Brown also proposed making the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade more efficient.
However, the policy could become a point of negotiation with National’s coalition partners.
Asked whether he had discussed the proposed foreign aid reduction with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, Luxon said he had not, describing it as a National Party policy.
On whether New Zealand First would accept the proposal during coalition negotiations, Luxon said the parties would “cross that bridge when we get there”.
He said his immediate focus was persuading voters to give National a stronger position at the election, allowing it to secure more ministers and advance more of its policies.
Alongside the medicines funding, National proposes lowering the eligibility age for free bowel screening to 50 by 2029.
RNZ reported that National had already lowered the age from 60 to 58 and then to 56. The proposed further reduction would extend screening to younger people.
National also promises to complete the extension of free breast screening to age 74 by 2029 and introduce free cervical screening for all women aged 25 to 69 from March 2027.
New screening pilots would be launched for prostate and lung cancer. These would test approaches to screening rather than immediately establish full nationwide programmes.
Brown said the aim was to identify cancer earlier, when treatment could be more effective, while giving patients access to a wider range of medicines.
“Now we want to go further, getting more medicines to Kiwis and catching cancer early, when it is most treatable,” he said.
The package also includes a national target for clinical trials and a commitment to make CAR-T cell therapy available.
National presented clinical trials and CAR-T as ways to give patients access to advanced treatments, potentially earlier than through conventional funding pathways.
Brown said these options could offer hope to people facing cancer or rare disorders when other treatments had been exhausted.
The announcement did not specify which additional medicines Pharmac would fund through the proposed $604 million increase. The stated intention is to support both new funding decisions and broader access to existing funded treatments.
National also proposed a Healthy Kiwis Programme offering active prescriptions as part of the wider package.
The announcement places medicines funding and early cancer detection among National’s health priorities for the final month of campaigning. It also sets up a debate over how much overseas assistance New Zealand should provide while responding to pressures on its own health system.
The proposals remain election commitments. Their implementation would depend on National returning to government and securing agreement on funding and policy through any coalition negotiations after the 7 November election.
Source: RNZ Parliamentary reporters, “Election 2026: National promises to cut foreign aid to boost Pharmac’s budget, cancer screenings”, reporting on the 6 October 2026 announcement.
