A fully funded independent Māori Health Funding Authority, all Māori having their own Whānau Health Card and Māori being screened for Cancer 10 years earlier than non-Māori are all part of the Māori Party Health Policy.

Māori Party Co-Leader John Tamihere said the establishment of a Māori Health Funding Agency - recommended in the Health and Disability System Review (also known as the Simpson Report 2020) – would be established. It would oversee the distribution of $5 billion.

He said $500 million of the already budgeted $1.9 billion mental health dollars would be transferred to Kaupapa Māori Mental Health services. The to Māori for Māori by Māori logic was an essential requirement given the high levels of drug and alcohol addiction, stress , depression and suicide numbers among Māori.

“This is not an issue that has developed overnight. It is intergenerational,” Tamihere said.

“It is an absolute disgrace that Māori have one the highest rates of suicide of indigenous people.”

He said every Māori would be allocated National Health Identification (NHI) card and be used like a credit card to purchase health services needed by the card holder.

“Health services would be purchased by those who give Māori the best services and results, not those who continue to fail us,” Tamihere said.

“The health funding must follow the patient, not the GP, Primary Health organisation, District Health Board or Ministry of Health. Every one of these groupings clip the ticket, so by the time the poor old Māori rolls up to the doctor, he pays because all the money set aside for Māori health issues, has been clipped all the way down.”

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