The Government has revealed the full cost of the reforms of the health system, pumped money into Māori health and topped up Pharmac’s budget, Marc Daalder reports
The Government has targeted Māori health as a priority area for spending in Budget 2021, allocating $242.8 million for the sector.
That includes $98 million to set up the new Māori Health Authority (MHA) - about a fifth of the total price of the major health reforms announced in April. Condensing all of the country’s District Health Boards (DHBs) into a single entity, Health NZ, and similarly consolidating public health units into a new Public Health Agency, is expected to cost nearly half a billion dollars.
Another $126.8 million will go to Māori health programmes and services currently run by DHBs and will be run by the MHA once it is set up next year.
“The funding injection will support the new and independent Māori Health Authority and the iwi/Māori partnership boards, with a significant portion allocated to Hauora Māori Health programmes run by the Māori Health Authority including funding for increasing provider capability and a Māori health innovation fund,” Associate Minister of Health for Māori Health Peeni Henare said.
Pharmac is another key recipient of Budget funding, with the Government giving it a boost of $200 million over the next four years - roughly a 4.5 percent increase in the agency’s budget.
“Other than the special Covid-19 funding we provided last year, this is one of the biggest budget increases Pharmac has ever had and will help an estimated 370,000 patients a year,” Health Minister Andrew Little said.
Health was wrapped into much of the Government’s new infrastructure spending in Budget 2021.
Capital spending of up to $700 million was approved for DHB investment, alongside $100.3 million for ambulance services and $516.6 million for health information technology infrastructure. This latter resource will support the health reforms and develop a “national health information platform so patient records can be read by approved health professionals anywhere in the country”.
DHBs themselves have been funded to the tune of an additional $2.7 billion to deal with ongoing pressures from increasing cost of services and increasing demand for services. This is on top of more than $4 billion in funding that DHBs received in the last Budget.
Individual health services were also funded to varying degrees. This includes a tagged contingency of up to $50 million for breast cancer screening, $28 million for cochlear implants, $17 million to improve access to free maternity care and previously announced funding for cervical screening.
Little of Budget 2021 deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, as key services like managed isolation and testing were topped up in December 2020 from the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund. The fund was established with $50 billion in last year’s Budget and still has $5.1 billion remaining to fund future outbreak responses and wage subsidies.
Some agencies received new funds for dealing with the pandemic - police, for example, got $8.3m for their work in managed isolation.
The main Covid-19-related funding in the Budget was $1.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines and the vaccine rollout. This came from the Covid-19 recovery fund.
