Health Sector Funding Challenges and Solutions in New Zealand

This report examines the complexities of healthcare funding within the New Zealand health sector. It identifies key challenges, such as inadequate funding and an aging population, while exploring both positive and negative strategies. The report suggests improvements through public financing, workforce training, and facility enhancements. It also addresses concerns about centralized leadership, taxation, and the accuracy of financial assessments. The author also suggests the need for collaboration with global health organizations to secure financial aid and advocates for strategic allocation of public funds to enhance healthcare services. References are provided to support the analysis.

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Health Science
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Health Science
There are many strengths and weaknesses that the New Zealand health sector has
encountered in the process of delivering healthcare services to the general public. One of the
main issues that affect healthcare service delivery is inadequate funding. The population growth
rate since the 1980s has been high, with a prolonged aging age of above 65 years (Cumming,
2016). The government in response to solving these problems have spent heavily on buying
healthcare facilities and investing in institutions that provide healthcare pieces of training.
The following are some of the positive ways to improve funding in the health sector in
New Zealand. Public financing of the health sector should be initiated universally by training a
highly committed workforce and providing adequate facilities to support healthcare operation.
The government should utilize their economy so as to be able to generate income that can be
used to improve health sector. Besides, health investments can mitigate the cost of health and
then finally improve the quality of life (Came, Doole, McKenna, & McCreanor, 2018). Both
local and international investors of health should be allowed to operate and start up registered
and verified medical hospitals.
The negative way to counter the health purchase in New Zealand is to centralize the
health leadership to the central government. The health sector should no longer rely on single
payer financed health system (government). Also, the government can impose heavy taxation to
both local and international health business so that they can monopolize the health sector
business. Again, the claims from the treasury papers that the health expenditure in the country is
rising has deflated the nominal spending with the wrong price index. As a result, it failed to
make vivid comparisons between the real stakes and lacked the ability to maximize the size of

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the errors that arose (Boden, Sanders, Munford, Liebenberg, & McLeod, 2016). Besides the
country should have minimized spending on general public health and on the disability cases.
Nonetheless, to improve the healthcare system in New Zealander, the country should
collaborate with the world health organization or other global health movements to chip in for
the financial aiding should the need be (Mudge, Hart, Murugan, & Kersten, 2017). Moreover, the
ministry should allocate more than three-quarter of its public funds in managing the funding
plans, providing and purchasing healthcare services to the public hospitals within the area.

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References
Boden, J. M., Sanders, J., Munford, R., Liebenberg, L., & McLeod, G. F. (2016). Paths to
positive development: A model of outcomes in the New Zealand youth transitions
study. Child Indicators Research, 9(4), 889-911.
Came, H., Doole, C., McKenna, B., & McCreanor, T. (2018). Institutional racism in public
health contracting: Findings of a nationwide survey from New Zealand. Social Science &
Medicine, 199, 132-139.
Cumming, J. (2016). Commissioning in New Zealand: learning from the past and
present. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 22(1), 34-39.
Mudge, S., Hart, A., Murugan, S., & Kersten, P. (2017). What influences the implementation of
the New Zealand stroke guidelines for physiotherapists and occupational
therapists? Disability and Rehabilitation, 39(5), 511-518.