Cutting health

National has announced that it will cut health spending in order to fund its tax cuts for the rich. The chief target is Labour's gradual re-extension of universal primary health care; National would reverse this and re-impose 1990's-style means-testing. The result will be most people paying more to visit the doctor - $26 more, according to Stuff - which means fewer visits, which means poorer healthcare outcomes. We saw what this sort of system of means-testing and usage charges did to public health during the 90's: we got third-world diseases in South Auckland as people couldn't afford to visit the doctor, and people delaying treatment until it was unavoidable (and consequently more expensive both for them and the taxpayer).

Brash justifies this by talking of a "productivity collapse" in health: that extra money has not resulted in more operations being done. But that's because the key purpose of that extra money has been to prevent operations from being done, by improving primary healthcare. There's also little things like a major infrastructure renewal program (Labour has been rebuilding hospitals - something neglected under National during the 90's), repaying DHB debt (again, accumulated during the 90's), and ensuring that staff are properly paid, so that people can actually see a doctor or nurse without having to fly to Australia. None of these things will result in more operations being done either - but the money has still been put to good use.

While this isn't National's full health policy, it is an indication of the direction they are planning to go in, and it presents a clear choice to the electorate: tax cuts, or decent healthcare. I will be choosing healthcare.