Funding New Zealand's public healthcare system : time for an honest appraisal and public debate

Contests the claims by successive NZ governments that the cost of funding the country's public healthcare services is excessive and unsustainable, arguing that they are based on a misrepresentation of healthcare spending. Uses data from the New Zealand Treasury and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to show how government spending as a whole is low compared with most other OECD countries and is falling as a proportion of GDP. Identifies reasons why the Government should spend more on healthcare, including forecast growing health need, signs of increasing unmet need, and the fact that if health needs are not met the costs still have to be borne by the economy. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.