Private Medical Cover

Private medical care has become more important in the last few years as the cost of medical treatment has risen and the funding of the public system comes under pressure.

You have to wait to even get on a waiting list for certain conditions these days. Private medical cover will in general get you faster treatment.

In addition, with the field of medical treatments expanding, private medical provides access to treatments that may not be available on the public system. Nowhere is this more obvious than with the limitations to Pharmac funded drugs on the public system, whereas certain private medical carriers allow any drug approved for use in New Zealand. The difference is around 2500 drugs available through Pharmac and 65000 through certain private medical policies.

Recently the Melanoma drugs such as Keytruda have been in the press, and before that it was Hercepton for Breast cancer.