Health Expenditure Trends in New Zealand 1990-2001

The Health Expenditure Trends in New Zealand 1990-2001 is now available on the Ministry of Health website. A full copy of the report can be found at http:// http://www.moh.govt.nz/publications.

The report provides estimates of health and disability services expenditure in New Zealand between 2000-2001, and at the aggregate level, on a per capita basis, by source of funds in nominal and in real terms between 1990-2001.

The information in this report provides a basis for understanding the reasons for changes in the patterns of health and disability expenditure in New Zealand. The data provided are also useful to help evaluate health and disability expenditure-related policies. These data, together with other information supplied by the Ministry, provide the information resources necessary for the public, researchers and policy makers to assess the performance of the health system over time.

Questions and Answers

What is Health Expenditure Trends in New Zealand 2001? Health expenditure trends 2001 is the latest in a regular series of reports which provides information on health and disability expenditure for use by both the public and health agencies. The publication reports on health and disability expenditure in New Zealand during 2000/01 and provides information on expenditure trends for the period 1990-2001. It analyses the trends of health funding in New Zealand and in relation to expenditure by other OECD countries.

What are the key points that arise from Health Expenditure Trends in New Zealand 2001? Total nominal health and disability expenditure rose 10.4 percent during the year to $9,884 million. Publicly funded expenditure was up 8.6 percent and private spending increased 16.9 percent. Within the latter, private household spending grew 20.5 percent to $1,657 million. This rise is likely to be attributable to actual data being available rather than the estimate provided in the two previous years. Health insurance expenditure was up 8.8 percent to $610.1 million and expenditure by the not-for-profit sector was $33 million.

Real (consumer price index adjusted) total expenditure increased 7 percent for the year compared with a rise of 3.6 percent the previous year.

Real publicly funded expenditure grew by 5.2 percent, and real private expenditure by 13.2 percent (3 percent in the previous year).

Real per capita publicly funded expenditure increased by 4.7 percent (compared with 3.2 percent the year before) to $1,974.

Real per capita aggregate expenditure was up 6.5 percent (compared with 3.4 percent the year before) to $2,573.

The estimated share of public funding was 76.7 percent, down 1.3 percent on 1999/2000. However, this has been impacted by the availability of actual data for out of pocket expenditure rather than the estimate provided in the two previous years. The estimated share of public funding in 1997/98 when actual out of pocket data was available was slightly higher at 77.1 percent. New Zealand's total health expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 8.8 percent, compared with 8.5 percent in 1999/2000.

When the funding for 'non-health' items (mostly disability support activities) is included, the proportion increases to 9.2 percent in 2000/01, compared with 8.9 percent in 1999/2000.

New Zealand's publicly funded health expenditure as a percentage of GDP was 6.8 percent in 2000/01. When the funding for 'non-health' items included in Vote Health is added, the proportion of publicly funded health and disability spending to GDP rises to 7.2 percent.

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