National would bring back $5 prescription fees

[Lilith7]

If elected. Well of course they would.



https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politic...if-elected

National Party finance spokesperson Nicola Willis told┬áStuff┬áNational would return the $5 charge to prescriptions if elected, as it was a ÔÇ£nice to have should not be the priorityÔÇØ.

ÔÇ£IÔÇÖve got a lot of sympathy for the fact there are lower-income people for whom I donÔÇÖt want prescriptions to be a barrier. Well, actually, there are already targetted ways of ensuring they donÔÇÖt face prescription fees,ÔÇØ she said.

ÔÇ£And you have the Chemist Warehouse offering all prescriptions for free. So, in effect, the Government ends up subsidising that and also┬á┬á

subsidising a lot of higher-income people who are perfectly happy to pay that charge.ÔÇØ

National similarly did not support a move by the Government to make public transport for children under 13-years-old free, and to half the price for children and young adults between 13 and 24-years-old."

"IÔÇÖve got a lot of sympathy for the fact there are lower-income people"┬á

Just no actual understanding - for example that not everyone will live close to &  be able to use a chemist warehouse which tend to be in the cities.

 I'm not sure exactly why it is, but Nicola Willis reminds me strongly of Ruth Richardson.

 National just doesn't seem to comprehend the difficulties for people, which I suppose is hardly surprising.