The policy is not targeted towards low and middle income NZers. It will apply to everyone regardless of income or wealth. So every Labour MP will get taxpayer funded GP visits despite earning around $200,000 a year or more.
More concerning is that it will lead to even larger delays in actually being able to see a GP when you are sick. This is because when there is no charge for a service, people will use it more. Labour says (I have asked for independent data to verify this) that on average NZers see a GP 2.5 times a year. Well if taxpayers pay for three visits a year, you can be sure everyone will go three times a year at least, as almost no one is in perfect health and never has a concern or niggle.
With 3.6 million adults that is an extra 1.8 million visits a year. That would be a 13% increase in the number of GP visits a year. With 5,600 GPs, that would suggest an extra 720 GPs would be needed to just keep even.
So Labour’s policy will not only benefit the wealthy, rather than be targeted, it will cause people who are really sick to be unable to see a GP when they need one. This policy will make things worse, not better.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
With 3.6 million adults that is an extra 1.8 million visits a year. That would be a 13% increase in the number of GP visits a year. With 5,600 GPs, that would suggest an extra 720 GPs would be needed to just keep even.
So Labour’s policy will not only benefit the wealthy, rather than be targeted, it will cause people who are really sick to be unable to see a GP when they need one. This policy will make things worse, not better.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
5 comments:
Typical left-wing tactic - promise free stuff and to hell with the logistics of delivering it.
I have noticed a trend at my local health centre for the resident GPs to manage their case loads by directing routine cases to their nurse practitioners. That, and trimming appointments from 20 to 15 minutes is clear evidence of existing stress in the system.
So Mr Hipkins, where are the extra GPs going to come from to service the increased demand from the newly entitled masses? When everyone rushes to claim their right to three free visits, they may just discover all the GPs have exercised their own right to a decent work/life balance and gone to work for Southern Cross.
But hey, you get what you vote for. It's called democracy. And we all enjoy free stuff, don't we. Except, as a number of famous people have observed, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Or a free doctor's appointment for that matter. And if you don't understand that, you're not equipped to vote.
NZ have to lift health and education to priority status with cross party support to ensure that priority is maintained.
It follows that training doctors etc is also a priority and remove all division on application to medical school. Immediately evening lectures at
university should be the normal to assist numbers being trained for Health services.
Funding for Health and Education reasonably requires budgets however removing wastage from non performing Ministries would sort out any funding shortfall for Health and Education.
And it will be a long time before this vote buying scheme even pays its way. Just another stupid labour idea like the first-year-free uni fees. They'd be far better off paying down our debt. But, no, there's obviously no immediate sugar-rush with that to woo the sucker punters.
Of course a CGT is just the pretext/precursor for a myriad others; gift, inheritance, death duties etc. Nevertheless to fritter it on often unnecessary but cluttering doctor visits is clearly absurd. Very very any likely Labour voters get huge discounts already.What do maori pay at their subsidised health agencies?
Labour wants more control of your life in as many areas as possible including health.
I consider it a cop-out to have to go to a doctor except for emergencies.
Read 'Medical Nemesis' by Ivan Illich , a classic on medicalisation of life. Watch BBC doco. 'What are we feeding our kids '. The emergency we have is in stopping our kids eating nutritionally poor and addictive junk food.
The internet is full of alternatives to pharmaceuticals which all have side affects.
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