Health spend-up

Friday 6th December 2002

New Zealanders are spending more of their own money on health care.

An official update on trends in health expenditure shows private households spent just over $1.6 billion on such things as medicines, dental care, GP visits and seeing medical specialists in the 2000 to 2001 year.

This is the equivalent of a 16% annual increase in private spending on health, compared with an 8% increase in the government spend during the same period.

But officials are qualifying this by warning that earlier figures of private spending may have been underestimated. Just under $10 billion was spent on health, with government departments, health insurers, not-for-profit organisations and local authorities also contributing more.

Meanwhile, research conducted by BRC Marketing and Social Research, randomly surveying over 750 people, found a majority of respondents (70%) thought there should be health warnings on the packaging of foods high in fat.

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