Act leader David Seymour yesterday outlined plans for a “colourblind’ health system that involves scrapping the Māori Health Authority, Te Aka Whai Ora, and ending the use of race to prioritise surgical waitlists.
“There is no justification for the public healthcare system to assign care based on ethnicity. It is lazy, divisive and doesn’t address the core problems at the heart of the health system. Act will stop dividing healthcare by race,” Seymour said.
National has also promised to scrap Te Aka Whai Ora and the use of race to prioritise surgical waitlists, with the party’s health spokesman Dr Shane Reti calling it “offensive and wrong” and saying it should be halted immediately.
Seymour yesterday doubled down on the party’s opposition to separate health systems for Māori, saying the emphasis on health should be fitting services to every New Zealander, and saying Act “will demand that the public health sector is colourblind, but highly focused on eliminating inequity”.