Managing Long Term Health Expenditure Information Release

Long Term Health Project#

The Treasury's Long-term Fiscal Statement (2006) projects public health expenditure doubling as a fraction of GDP by 2050, even with relatively optimistic assumptions. Continuing recent growth trends would have an even bigger fiscal impact. It is clear from these projections that the recent health spending track is not fiscally sustainable.

The current Treasury project on developing a strategy to manage long term health expenditure is an important component of the strategic result area on long term fiscal sustainability that is included in Treasury's Statement of Intent. The long term project also forms a key part of the Treasury Health section's result plan. The Treasury Health section has several streams of work underway to better understand the drivers of health expenditure and possible future expenditure paths, as well as options for moderating spending growth.

Documents#

The documents that have been released here are presentations on the need to manage long term health expenditure that Treasury officials have given in various public fora. Each presentation shows progression in thinking on the related issues as further work has been undertaken. This page will be updated with future work when appropriate.