2023 NZ Election: Policies from National, ACT and NZ First

  • Explore the implementation of recommendations from a report that found misalignment of capitation funding with patient complexity is a challenge
  • Provide 52 million in funding available for GPs to incentivise clinics that can lift immunisation rates for children and younger (<18 years) and older (>65 years) enrolled patients.
  • Increase GP funding by 13% to offer an extra 2.5 million GP visits per year
  • Increase capitation funding for general practice and primary healthcare
  • Expand range of services delivered through primary care (including allied health and mental health services)
  • Use a Mental Health Innovation Fund to support community providers such as Mike King’s Gumboot Friday. Provide up to 20 million dollars for community health organisations that demonstrate they are delivering results for mental health
  • Establish a Ministry for Mental Health
  • Establish a standalone agency called Mental Health and Addiction NZ that enables patients to choose a range of mental health services
  • Fund Mike King’s Gumboot Friday charity
  • Achieve shorter wait times for first specialist assessment and surgery
  • Subsidise common elective surgeries at private hospitals with a competitive tender to reduce public waitlists
  • Fund mobile health buses to take specialists services to the people
  • Train more doctors by establishing a third medical school at University of Waikato and increase medical school placements at University of Auckland and University of Otago by a total of 50 from 2025
  • Pay for nurses and midwives’ student loans (4,500 a year) for the first five years of their career if they remain working in NZ
  • Increase the number of psychiatrist registrar training places available each year to 50 per year on average
  • Establish a process for recognising medical professional credentials from countries with comparable health systems
  • Allowing physician assistants to take on more responsibilities to allow GPs to focus on non-admin work
  • Investigate solutions to increase number of medical students and fill health service shortages with immigration
  • Fund more cancer treatments by allocating 280 million dollars to pay for 13 cancer treatments that are not funded in NZ
  • Free prescriptions for those of low SES and superannuitants
  • Faster medicine approval by legislating Medsafe to make decision for approval within a maximum of 255 days
  • Commission an independent review of PHARMAC’s operating model for timeliness in decision-making
  • Accelerate funding pathways to improve access to medicine
  • Double PHARMAC budget
  • Fund all medicines on the medicine waiting list including cancer drugs
  • Establish $100 million rapid access scheme for innovative medicines including rare disorders
  • Repeal Therapeutic Products Act 2023
  • Extend age range for free breast screening from 69 years to 74 years
  • Ensure faster cancer treatment by reaching health target: 85% of patients receive cancer treatment within 31 days of the decision to treat
  • Develop national guidelines for ovarian cancer diagnosis and investigate the development of an ovarian cancer register
  • Commission business case for progressively lowering bowel cancer screening age to 50

N/A

  • Support 3-year prostate cancer screening pilot programme for men over 50
  • Fund PSMA-PET scans to detect cancer spread
  • Extend free mammogram screening age to include women aged 40-74 years-old
  • Support timely access and treatment for breast cancer
  • Fund more breast cancer drugs
  • Achieve health target of 95% of patients are admitted and discharged in ED within 6 hours

N/A

  • Increase funding for emergency departments including staff needed for emergency departments
  • Provide free continuous glucose monitors for children (< 18 years) with type 1 diabetes

N/A

  • Fund new diabetes medicine that has been proven to reduce negative side effects
  • Increase postnatal stays to 3 days for mothers and newborn babies

N/A

  • Ensure Plunket is funded and doing their intended work properly

N/A

  • Support qualified migrants to fills in gaps in primary care including care in rural areas
  • Incentivise GPs to become rural GPs with an reformulated capitation that takes into account social determinants
  • Build/upgrade the hospital in Dunedin with 29.5 million dollars. This will cover 23 inpatient beds, 2 operating theatres and a PET scanner
  • Establish public-private partnerships (PPP) to build and upgrade hospital and healthcare facilities
  • Use lease-back and build arrangements with reputable global infrastructure investment groups to refurbish existing public health infrastructure and construction of new healthcare facilities

N/A

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  • Invest in new generation rapid diagnostics (groundbreaking medical technology that is not available in NZ)

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N/A

  • Support early intervention programmes for arthritis to develop awareness and education programmes for the treatment of arthritis
  • Support health literacy and practice for men’s health including prostate cancer 
  • Support health literacy and practice for women’s health including breast cancer awareness

N/A

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  • Universal vision screening by trained optometrists for year 5 and 6 primary school students

N/A

N/A

  • Expand free dental care with free yearly check-ups and x-rays for 18-25 year olds, community service card holders and super gold card holders

N/A

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  • Undertake deep research to investigate the cause of increase chronic disease prevalence and deterioration of New Zealander’s overall health
  • Improved immunisation with health targets – 95% of two-year olds receive necessary immunisation
  • Establish a different vaccine policy that does not result in ostracism and division (Covid-19)

N/A

  • Limit availability of cheap, disposable vapes to require all vaping products to have replaceable batteries.
  • Restrict establishment of vape stores within 300 metres of schools
  • Prohibit the use of flavors for vapes
  • Increase maximum fine for retailers selling vaping products to minors to 20,000 dollars
  • Capping total number of vape stores at 600 in the country

N/A

  • Support Action for Smokefree NZ by encouraging tobacco and cigarette smokers to safer products

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N/A

  • Fund St John Ambulance service to their requested 95% required funding level
  • Complete stocktake of paramedic equipment and staffing
  • Introduce funding for paramedic equipment

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N/A

  • Remove Māori Health Authority for a unified health system
  • Accelerate renewable power projects including solar, wind and geothermal
  • Repeal the Zero Carbon Act including Climate Change Commission
  • Repeal the Clean Car Discount, oil and gas ban and 100 percent renewable electricity generation
  • Return revenue from the Emissions Trading Scheme through a carbon tax refund
  • Will not support emissions pricing in any form
  • Incentivise reduction in emissions with ‘low methane genetics’ and ‘low methane producing animal food’ by using revenue from the emissions trading scheme
  • Develop a waste-to-energy strategy

References

National 2023 election policies: https://www.national.org.nz/plan

ACT 2023 election policies: https://www.act.org.nz/health

New Zealand First 2023 election policies: https://www.nzfirst.nz/2023_policies