All prescriptions you collect between the dates of 1 Feb to 31 Jan every year are counted. When you reach the 20 threshold, you no longer have to pay for further prescriptions. You can even get your partner's and children's scripts to count towards this total too! (children aged 14-18, as under 13 are free anyway so they don't count).

You can find out more here. Talk to your pharmacist about it too:

https://www.health.govt.nz/…/me…/prescription-subsidy-scheme