How does the operation of PHARMAC's 'Community Exceptional ...

Chapter 7: Discussion
Introduction
In the Philosophical Framework in Chapter 4 of this thesis, I developed a series
of test-questions which encapsulated the principles of distributive justice as
described by Rawls and Sen. The Research Findings in Chapter 6 presented the
regularly occurring themes that were extracted from the research data on the
subject of PHARMAC’s ‘Community Exceptional Circumstances’ policy.
In this chapter, I have chosen to use the test-questions as a framework for a
discussion about the regularly occurring themes that emerged. I have used each
test-question to examine the themes (as well as some excerpts from the
literature) to demonstrate PHARMAC’s performance 69 . However I have made an
exception in the case of Theme 5. I have discussed Theme 5 on its own because
it relates to the actions of Ministers and PHARMAC had no control over these
circumstances.
Test-Question 1
“Would the most advantaged in society accept this distribution if they, at
an instant, found themselves to be the least advantaged in society and
requiring such distribution for themselves?”
PHARMAC has two differing purposes under the New Zealand Public Health and
Disability Act (2000). The first purpose is to manage the subsidisation of
community and hospital pharmaceuticals within the budget that has been set by
government. The second purpose is to manage the subsidisation of the
69 I have chosen to examine the test-questions against the themes not the themes against the test-questions. This is because the
thesis question asks how PHARMAC’s policy aligns with the principles of distributive justice. The question does not ask how the
principles of distributive justice align with the PHARMAC policy.
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