Prescription drug subsidies in Australia and New Zealand

Australians and New Zealanders may see their systems for drug subsidy as different but, when viewed from the other side of the Pacific, important similarities emerge. 1 Both systems provide universal public subsidy to make commonly used medicines more accessible and affordable. This is still not achieved in some other oeCD (organisation for economic Co-operation and Development) countries such as Canada and the USA. 2 Australia and New Zealand have, of course, different strategies for expenditure management, resulting in significant differences in expenditure. However the health outcomes