The public health system has never funded all the health needs of New Zealanders. This is true for many areas of health, such as doctor’s visits, prescription costs, and non-urgent surgery where people have queued on waiting lists, often for operations they were never going to receive. The public health system’s waiting lists have now been replaced by a booking system which makes it clearer that there are surgical needs will not be met from the public purse.

As the population ages there may be less taxable income and less money for Health System. This has obvious implications for access to the public health system.