Iwi health provider pays for staff health insurance, says public system too slow

Timely access to non-acute healthcare, as well as some urgent time-critical care, is becoming increasingly dependent on an individual's ability to pay for it, the ASMS report said. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

A Bay of Plenty iwi organisation has bought private health insurance for its 110 workers for the first time because they are getting hit so hard by hospital waiting lists.

It knew of two similar groups that have had to do the same recently, even though it was "absolutely ridiculous", said the boss of Whakatāne's Ngāti Awa Social and Health Services.

New Zealanders' dependency on private healthcare was "rapidly increasing... to provide what public services can't", according to a new report from the senior doctors' union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), released on Tuesday.

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Article by: RNZ

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