Decision to cut disability allowance payments disappointing

Government's decision to cut disability allowance payments disappointing

Life can be expensive for a family with a sick child. The 8-year-old Manurewa boy whose asthma is so bad that he missed one in every four school days last year evidenced this situation. Every month there is Ventolin at $18 a month, Serevent, at $5 a month and in winter the costs increase including possible steroid medication Redipred, at $10 a month, and a daily tablet, Singulair, costing $96 a month. Doctor's visits cost another $10 a visit about three times a month in winter.

"It distresses us to hear about parents who aren’t giving their children the required medication because they can’t afford it," said Dr Tristram Ingham, Maori strategic advisor for the Asthma Foundation.

The government’s decision to cut disability allowance payments will have long term potential impacts on families caring for a child with a long term condition such as asthma - through health care access (affordability of prescriptions/ doctors visits etc), household income (through lost earnings whilst caring for child) hence nutrition, housing quality etc.

With 1 in 7 children taking asthma medication in New Zealand it is imperative that parents and carers can financially afford their continued care.

A soon to be released report detailing respiratory health statistics notes that prevalence of asthma is higher for the most deprived for both adults and children with the most socioeconomically deprived also having a hospitalisation rate more than three times that of the wealthiest areas.

While we welcome the government's initiative of providing free doctors visits for all children under 13 from July, removing this subsidy so that parents struggle to keep their children well will only result in more of our tamariki in hospital and higher health costs for New Zealand.

Notes for editors

In New Zealand
• Over 500,000 New Zealanders have asthma
• One in seven children (107,000) and one in nine adults (389,000) have asthma
• In 2013 asthma was responsible for 7,400 hospitalisations
• People still die from asthma, with 69 deaths in 2011
• In the five years between 2006 and 2011:
o Asthma deaths were six times higher for Pacific Peoples and five times higher for Maori compared to NZ European
o People in the most deprived areas were three times more likely to die of asthma than people in the least deprived areas
o Children living in the most deprived areas were more likely to have asthma (15%) than children living in the least deprived areas (10%)
• Maori have a higher prevalence of asthma compared to non-Maori children, tend to have more severe symptoms, require hospitalisation for asthma almost three times as often, and require more time off school because of asthma
• $800,000,000 is the conservative estimate of the annual economic burden of asthma
• Asthma affects approximately 235 million people worldwide and the prevalence is rising
• Asthma causes an estimated 250,000 deaths worldwide annually

About the Asthma Foundation
The Asthma Foundation is New Zealand’s sector authority on asthma and other respiratory illnesses. We advocate to government and raise awareness of respiratory illnesses, fund research for better treatments and educate on best practice. We provide resources on our website and support our affiliated asthma societies and trusts in providing education, support and advice. For more information, visit the Asthma Foundation’s website http://www.asthmafoundation.org.nz/.

ENDS

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