Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the growing calls to invest more into health spending
episodeTranscript
jump: chapters · speakers · find in transcriptTranscript
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why is Business NZ calling for health spending to be treated as an economic investment?
Business New Zealand has entered the health debate this morning with a call to treat health spending as an investment in economic prosperity. It wants a multi-year boost to Pharmac. You see, just 4.9% of the spending goes on medicine. The OECD average is 13.3%. Now, Catherine Rich is the Business New Zealand CEO and she's with us. Catherine, morning. Morning.
How does the current New Zealand medicine budget compare to the OECD average?
You're walking a tightrope here between what you normally do and sort of breaching into the wonderful world of health and expenditure and Pharmac and drugs and workforces and ACC and stuff like that?
Well, Business New Zealand's made a conscious decision to get involved in the health debate. Usually you don't see business involved, but of course good health policy is good economic policy. And we do need to look at what we are spending as an investment because if you invest well and differently, it means you can get people back to work and their life. And there are some... concerns that we have had for a long time that we don't get the proportions of the health dollar spent in the right places. We'd like to see more for rehab, more for medicines.
What concerns does Business NZ have about the allocation of the health dollar?
We're completely out of kilter with the OECD with the amount we give to the medicines budget, as you noted.
Yeah, the medicine thing, to be fair or to defend the government, I mean, Seymour would tell you that they've made a fairly concerted effort on Pharmac and I think they've been successful in that. But at 4.9 to 13.3, you can't argue with the numbers, can you?
No you can't and already Pharmac has a list of about 134 drugs which have been approved for investment but there's just not the budget and so some of those drugs are the ones that can be given to people so that they can continue to work and contribute to society. I think also we've taken a good look at ACC over the years and even ACC admits they've dropped the ball on investing in rehab and getting people back to work faster. I mean, the stats aren't great.
Why does Business NZ want more funding for rehabilitation, medicines, and prevention?
And they would argue that they're sort of rectifying that at the moment. How much of this,
do you have
a view on this, how much of this is union-driven expenditure? In other words, the people who moan the loudest get given the money, and that might be part of the problem.
Well, traditionally, we've just continued to spend health in the same way. We give A certain amount for hospitals and a certain proportion goes to different parts of the health system. This is the reason Business New Zealand's got involved.
How can smarter health‑spending decisions boost workforce participation and economic growth?
We think that it is important to test how we spend the health dollar and to look at how we can invest in other areas, particularly prevention and rehab and medicines, because the ageing population isn't hypothetical. New Zealanders are there and they're heading to the hospital soon and we need to think about how we can serve them better So this isn't about spending more. It's just thinking smarter about how we spend.
Yeah, exactly. All right, Catherine, appreciate it. Catherine Rich, who's business New Zealand CEO. There must be an election campaign going on.
No segments match your search.
Select any passage to copy it with its citation or turn it into a shareable card.
Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why is Business NZ calling for health spending to be treated as an economic investment?
0:00–0:20
2
How does the current New Zealand medicine budget compare to the OECD average?
0:20–1:05
3
What concerns does Business NZ have about the allocation of the health dollar?
1:05–1:57
4
Why does Business NZ want more funding for rehabilitation, medicines, and prevention?
1:57–2:22
5
How can smarter health‑spending decisions boost workforce participation and economic growth?
2:22–3:01
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Mike Hosking Breakfast
Mike's Minute: It's still our year
Steve Price: Australian correspondent on One Nation looking to bring down the number of international students
Commentary Box: Andrew Saville and Jason Pine discuss the All Blacks' loss and the Warriors' upcoming clash against the Knights
Richard Arnold: US correspondent on the growing calls to take AI risks seriously
Cameron George: Warriors CEO on the team's upcoming clash against the Knights at Eden Park
Mark Lambert: Auckland Transport group manager of rail services on the official launch of the CRL