Health
Page updated 14 Jan 2013
Overview of Treasury information, research and policy publications about health in New Zealand and government expenditure on health.
The Treasury's Role
The Treasury provides advice to Ministers on the purchase and regulation of health services. This advice covers areas such as the structure and management of health spending, institutional and governance arrangements in the health sector and health sector strategies and policies.
The Treasury also provides advice on the Crown's ownership interest in district health boards (DHBs). This includes monitoring the performance of DHBs and assessing capital investments. This work is carried out in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, which has primary responsibility for performance monitoring and relationship management.
Funding
Health spending is reported in the Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand. The most recent figure for core Crown health spending in New Zealand is $14.2 billion for the 2011/12 financial year. This figure is taken from the Analysis of Expenses by Functional Classification which is a section of the Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the Year Ended 30 June 2012.
In Budget 2012 the total for Vote Health in the Estimates of Appropriations 2012/13 is nearly $14,125 million. The Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2012 (HYEFU) published on 18 December 2012 forecasts that core Crown spending on health for the 2012/13 year will be $14.7 billion. Refer to the Core Crown Expense Tables for forecast spending out to 2017.
Treasury Research and Policy Papers
To read Treasury papers on health issues see the Health and Influenza subjects in the Research and Policy Papers section of the Publications index.
Health-Related Information Releases
There have been the following information releases of Treasury advice to Ministers and other material relating to the health sector on the Treasury website:
- Managing Long Term Health Expenditure (30 June 2008) - The Treasury has released material relating to public health expenditure and long term challenges in health.
- How Can Primary Health Care Contribute Better to Health System Sustainability?: A Treasury Perspective (14 May 2008) - The Treasury has released an internal discussion document which was cited by the OECD in its Economic Survey of New Zealand 2009.
- Health Sector (15 February 2007) - Includes material on health sector productivity, an in-depth review of the health sector and the Treasury's input into the review of the Ministry of Health.
- Health Funding and Insurance (9 December 2004)
- Costs of Subsidising Private Health Insurance (5 March 2002)
