The 2016 budget is here, and it doesn’t look good for public health needs. Experts and health professionals are up in arms over the continued eroding of New Zealand’s public health care system.
National is putting New Zealand on a path towards an American-style healthcare system “where a large section of our community is left without an acceptable level of care,” says Canterbury Charity Hospital founder Phil Bagshaw. The health budget has been declining in real terms for the past decade.
Health professionals are already dealing with a “tsunami of unmet health needs,” says Ian Powell, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director. We can’t let National continue to push our health care system towards privatisation.
Sign the petition to tell John Key and the National party to increase health spending in the next fiscal year to meet New Zealand’s needs.
Researchers warn that access to publicly-funded surgery may be on its way out. And critics argue it’s not an issue of lack of funds, but a political decision to cut expenses and taxes in an emulation of the failed health reforms of the 1990s. We already know the crisis of care that comes with the neoliberalisation of health services.
We Government doesn’t seem to understand is that an investment in public health is an investment in our economy. “One dollar you put into health you get $4 back,” explained Bagshaw. “People become more productive, they don’t get as many illnesses and they don’t go into care.” And it’s not like the costs saved by cutting health services just disappear -- they resurface elsewhere and still have to be borne by taxpayers.
National’s short-sighted health budget cuts are putting us on a path towards privatisation. But the budget isn’t set in stone -- it still needs to be scrutinised and approved by Parliament. That means there’s still time to protect the health services we all rely on. We need to come together to demand Government invest in public health.
Tell John Key and the National party to revise the health budget to address unmet public health needs.
More information
Stuff.co.nz. 27 May 2016.