COMMENT Funding boost for health travel no silver bullet
| Published date | 10 April 2024 |
| Author | Wayne Howett Wayne Howett is the chief executive of RMHC NZ |
| Publication title | Northern Advocate, The (Whangarei, New Zealand) |
The context here is important. It has been 15 years since the last time this funding was increased — despite inflation, a rising population and growing social complexity.
This National-led Government deserves credit for ensuring this has finally arrived, but this isn’t a silver bullet that will, overnight, ensure every Kiwi child who needs medical attention gets the treatment they need.
New Zealand is still without a sufficient system in place to ensure the funding continues to grow to meet the increased demands being placed on our healthcare system.
There has to be a better method than relying on charity groups to lobby for more money every few decades and hoping the Government of the day delivers. What happens if successive governments in the future again ignore the call for increased funding?
A better system would see the funding tied to the cost of living and increased accordingly year-on-year to meet the evolving needs of Kiwi families.
Another lingering issue that will not be corrected by this increased funding is the eligibility criteria for access to this travel assistance, giving families financial relief for transportation and accommodation costs.
The current criteria insist that families applying for the support must live at least 80 kilometres away from the healthcare facility to qualify for the funding (except in specific circumstances). Provisions like these feel like a box-ticking exercise far removed from the realities of the modern experience, ultimately leading to families’ preclusion from accessing the healthcare they need.
The financial impact of 80km isn’t uniform from one family to another. Some of us drive comfortably in leather-bound seats, while others have to borrow a car from a cousin on the day she’s not working.
In recent years, we’ve worked with many families living as close as South and West Auckland who simply couldn’t afford to catch a bus to the city’s main hospital for treatment. For these families, it’s often a choice between buying bread for the week or taking their child to the specialist they need to see.
The point here isn’t to provoke sympathy for the families. It’s to show the need for a more...
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