{"id":565241,"date":"2026-08-11T02:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T02:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/565241\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T02:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T02:00:21","slug":"pharmac-diabetes-decision-raises-concerns-over-maori-and-pasifika-access-te-ao-maori-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/565241\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharmac diabetes decision raises concerns over M\u0101ori and Pasifika access \u2013 Te Ao M\u0101ori News"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took Selina Patia 10 years to get her type 2 diabetes under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was first diagnosed, I felt so lost. I didn\u2019t know what to do or what my next steps were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patia was diagnosed in 2016. Uncomfortable with the prospect of insulin injections, she took medication that caused ongoing stomach problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept saying the meds were causing me issues, but nobody was listening. I was just told, \u2018Keep taking your meds and watch what you\u2019re eating.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She began researching diabetes herself, talking to people about their experiences and eventually changing doctors.<\/p>\n

It was through that process that she found treatment options that worked for her.<\/p>\n

\"\"Selina Patia (Photo: Patia wh\u0101nau) <\/p>\n

Patia, who is M\u0101ori and Pasifika, says her experience reflects challenges faced by others in her communities, which experience some of the poorest outcomes for type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n

Those inequities are now under renewed scrutiny after Pharmac removed ethnicity-based eligibility criteria that previously gave M\u0101ori and Pasifika greater access to funded type 2 diabetes medicines.<\/p>\n

The decision prompted strong criticism. Although Pharmac has since expanded access to the medicines, experts remain concerned M\u0101ori and Pasifika may still face barriers to receiving appropriate care.<\/p>\n

A puzzling decision<\/p>\n

Pharmac\u2019s latest decision came after it proposed removing the ethnicity criteria and lowering the cardiovascular risk threshold for access to four medicines.<\/p>\n

The original proposal, released in May, was expected to give an estimated 23,000 more people access to the medicines over five years.<\/p>\n

Under the revised proposal, access will instead be widened to anyone with type 2 diabetes whose blood sugar remains high despite other treatment. Pharmac estimates this will give an additional 31,000 people access over five years.<\/p>\n

Pharmac said it received nearly 1,900 submissions during consultation, with many concerned that removing the ethnicity criteria could mean M\u0101ori and Pacific people who qualified under the existing criteria, but were not yet accessing treatment, could lose access.<\/p>\n

Submissions also highlighted the disproportionate impact of type 2 diabetes and its complications on M\u0101ori and Pacific communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the substantial feedback received from our consultation, Pharmac worked on an updated proposal that would enable us to widen access to these medicines for even more people than we originally proposed,\u201d Pharmac said.<\/p>\n

Associate Health Minister David Seymour welcomed the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cPharmac has made the decision to fund these medicines for everybody who needs them, no matter their ethnicity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The medicines will be available to a wider group from Sept. 1, including empagliflozin, empagliflozin with metformin, liraglutide and dulaglutide.<\/p>\n

\"\"Concerns inequities could worsen<\/p>\n

Mataroria Lyndon, from Te Tirat\u016b Iwi M\u0101ori Partnership Board, says removing the ethnicity criteria assumes the health system is already delivering equal access.<\/p>\n

He says that is not the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cM\u0101ori and Pasifika are more likely to live with diabetes in Aotearoa. M\u0101ori are twice as likely as non-M\u0101ori to have diabetes,\u201d Lyndon says.<\/p>\n

Diabetes can lead to serious complications, including heart and kidney disease, vision loss and amputations.<\/p>\n

\u201cM\u0101ori are three times more likely than non-M\u0101ori to lose their leg or foot,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we need a targeted response to address it, not a one-size-fits-all approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyndon says Pharmac needs to provide evidence that removing the ethnicity criteria will not worsen outcomes for M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue was that even proposing to remove an ethnicity criterion is a breach of Te Tiriti, but it also undermines the need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Mataroria Lyndon (Photo: Tend Health) <\/p>\n

University of Waikato associate professor Rawiri Keenan is also concerned about the decision, although he welcomes the wider access to the medicines.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, making it available to any patient with diabetes who\u2019s not meeting the targets for good control means those barriers shouldn\u2019t be there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut historically, we know that they are there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keenan says ethnicity-based criteria played an important role in improving access to care for M\u0101ori and Pacific people.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Rawiri Keenan (Photo: 100M\u0101orileaders) <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a risk that when it isn\u2019t named, it gets forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Patia, the debate reflects a problem she experienced first-hand: knowing there should be another option, but not knowing how to find it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started researching on my own, started learning, started talking to people about their own journey and what that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took Selina Patia 10 years to get her type 2 diabetes under control. \u201cWhen I was first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3535,134,23753,111,139,69,19953],"class_list":["post-565241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-diabetes","tag-health","tag-maori","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pharmac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}