Why has health-care in NZ declined these past five years? In one line, it is because of the poorly thought out & economically unworkable "reform" of the system advocated by former PM Helen Clark's Chief of Staff, Heather Simpson. It became known as the Simpson Report and was published in 2020, the year coinciding with plummeting health-care services in NZ. Here is the Executive Summary. As a reward, Simpson has recently been promoted to be a Director of Inter Island Ferry Procurement. That's how Wellington works. What was the ethos behind the Simpson Report? Essentially that economies of scale and better coordination would come from the creation of one gigantic centralized authority, called Health NZ, as well as the establishment of a new Māori Health Authority. In Simpson's world, centralized command systems, run by thousands of bureaucrats, is the best option.
Read the Executive Summary of Simpson's Report above. It does not mention the words "compete", "competing" or "competition", once in its 36 pages. Not once. Think that's bad? Read the full Simpson Report. It doesn't mention the words "compete", "competing" or "competition", once in its 274 pages. Not once. That saw the end of quality health-care services delivered at affordable costs in NZ. Every significant person knowledgeable in health economics stresses how competition amongst suppliers of health-care services is vital to achieve higher quality & deliver it more efficiently. That is how all of the best, most successful health-care systems in the world work today, even in socialist leaning France, let alone the likes of Canada, Singapore & Taiwan. All of those countries have universal health-care systems, everyone is covered, and people have choice where to go for the best service. The bills are paid either direct by the government, or by government sponsored national health insurance schemes. Not in NZ. We stand alone in the mistaken Simpson-style belief that creating a gigantic centralized leviathan, Health NZ, formed on the philosophical ethos that competition is bad, and centralization to achieve scale is good, is the way to go. Not sure NZ First Leader Peters agrees. He's the one who appointed Simpson to his Ferry Board.