How general practice is funded in New Zealand

Aotearoa Health, New Zealand. Laurence A Malcolm, MD, FRCPE, FFPHM, Professor Emeritus and Consultant. Lawrence A Malcolm is Professor Emeritus and former Professor of Community Health at the University of Otago. He has extensive New Zealand and international experience in health services development, especially in primary care. Reprints will not be available from the author. Correspondence: Professor L A Malcolm, Aotearoa Health, RD 1 Lyttelton, New Zealand. lm@cyberxpress.co.nz The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025729X 19 July 2004 181 2 106-107 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2004 www.mja.com.au GP Funding — Viewpoints than 80% of practice income. In the early 1990s, the government introduced a services card” (CSC) for people on below-average i rently, the threshold for this is NZ$21 913 for a sing NZ$31 225 for a married couple, and rises wit children. The CSC entitles holders to higher subsid for prescriptions, but the quid pro quo was the r ow up Ge H general practice is funded in New Zealand depends on an answer to the question “This week or next?”! neral practice, and primary healthcare generally, is currently undergoing a revolution greater than anything since the early 1940s, when government funding of general practitioners was introduced. GPs then successfully argued for the “sacred” right to charge a fee commensurate with their services, making them unique compared with similar countries, including Australia. Substantial patient copayments resulted, rising at times to more