Mahatma Gandhi once said it is health that is real wealth, not pieces of gold and silver. How right he was.
When you’re in politics as I am, listening to New Zealanders every day, you soon get a feel for what people really care about: good healthcare, quality education, solid well-paid work, opportunities and hope for the future. We all want to live a long and healthy life, enjoying our children – and if we’re lucky, grandchildren.
Research shows the best path to maintaining good health over the long-term is early intervention and prevention.
That’s why I was so saddened to learn that last year more than half a million New Zealanders needed to see a doctor, but couldn’t afford an appointment.
Over the same period, quarter of a million New Zealanders didn’t fill their prescriptions for the same reason. These people went to the doctor because they were sick but couldn’t get the treatment they needed. That is heart-breaking.
Our once-prized health system has become just an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, because too many people can’t afford to get the care they need.
This is not the New Zealand Labour believes in. We’re a better country than that. We believe New Zealanders should be able to rely on quality healthcare regardless of the size of their wallets.
A Labour Government will make healthcare more accessible for more Kiwis. All up, nearly 40 per cent of New Zealanders – or 1.7 million people – will get free doctor visits and prescriptions under Labour’s health package which has been carefully costed as part of our responsible fiscal plan. That’s up from 12 per cent at the moment.
We will radically reduce the cost and improve the quality of healthcare for hundreds of thousands more New Zealanders.
Labour will give 700,000 people in low income communities free or heavily discounted GP visits through an injection of $60 million for primary healthcare.
And we will make doctors’ visits and prescriptions free for all New Zealanders aged 65 and over. This will make a real difference in the lives of nearly 700,000 older New Zealanders. These are people who’ve paid taxes all their lives, who face some of the greatest health needs and who are most likely to have fixed incomes.
Labour will also make GP visits, prescriptions and dental care free for all pregnant women. That’s because international evidence, including work by our own Sir Peter Gluckman, shows a direct link between the health of expectant mothers and that of their children.
And Labour will look after children as they grow by providing free GP visits and prescriptions for those under 13 and increase funding for youth health centres.
Labour believes that people matter most and that we all deserve the best health. You can tell a lot about a society by the way it looks after its children and elderly people.
Under a Labour Government, the young, the old, the pregnant and those on low incomes will all get the healthcare they need.