The Government's recently announced changes to the heath system amount to a board reshuffle. A management re-arrangement. A bureaucratic re-alignment. Incentives within the health system will remain unchanged. Power seems to be shifting ever higher, becoming more centralized and moving further away from doctors and patients. When the Auckland Super City was announced and a similar amalgamation - in that case of local councils - was implemented, it was meant to solve Auckland's problems. Though nothing much changed.
What is instead required is a genuine reform that changes incentives and paves the way to higher quality health-care for all Kiwis at lower costs. The best way to do so is by enabling the funding of mandatory savings accounts out of which individuals can make payments for their own welfare needs, whereby they get to make the best choice for themselves, with help from their doctor, instead of the government on their behalf. The accounts can also be used to help low income families build up significant capital of their own and solve our inequality problems. To see how it works in the case of New Zealand, complete with a fully costed government budget, then you can download the file below. It is joint work between myself and a former Kiwi Finance Minister:
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