The health budget contains a $100 million election sweetener in the form of "likely" future increases under Labour.
Vote Health increases have been pre-stated at $750 million a year since 2006. But Finance Minister Michael Cullen yesterday suggested that the increases in health - which is slated to
receive $12.2 billion in the coming financial year - would be greater under re-elected Labour. "The Government is considering indicative operating allocations of $800 million and $850 million for Budgets 2009 and 2010 respectively," Dr Cullen's Budget summary says. "These amounts indicate the likely level of increased funding to be provided to Vote Health in future Budgets ... "
Health Minister David Cunliffe's office cautioned, however, that these increases could be revised in light of future economic conditions.
The Budget's big-ticket health items have been pre-announced, including elective services, $160 million extra over four years; Gardasil vaccine to reduce the risk of cervical cancer, $164.2 million new money over five years; $40 million for a pneumococcal disease vaccine.
Items announced yesterday include: extending the fruit-in-schools programme in low-income areas, $4 million; expanding access to quit-smoking drugs, $32 million over four years; improving access to primary health care after-hours in rural areas, $5 million in 2008-09; reducing prescription charges for hospital outpatients and after-hours patients to $3, from the $15 now paid by those without a community services card; and increasing spending on oral health, including the school dental service, by $79 million over four years.
The Medical Association welcomed the initiatives, but said the Budget failed to provide comprehensive funding to address health workforce shortages.
The senior doctors' union said the Budget went in the right direction for health, but the health workforce needed greater support if the Government's expectations were to be fulfilled.
