Health Budget

Just listenting to Annette King debate health funding with Kim Hill.

I recall when I was in Government, various people thought one could solve all the health problems just by spending more money. My response at the time was that I reckoned one could double the amount of money spent on health, and you would still find demand still exceeding resources.

Now Labour has actually gone halfway there – funding has increased by about 50%, and yep you guessed it – the change has hardly been noticed. And if it increased another 50% I guarantee you there would still be waiting lists, some drugs not subsidised, part-charges etc.

Unless one day there is a sensible debate and consensus about what should be privately funded, and publicly funded, one will never have a health system that can meet demand.