NZ Right Wing Government Moves to Privatise Health

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, October 2nd, 2024 - 41 comments
Categories: assets, Christopher Luxon, health, privatisation, Privatisation, Public Private Partnerships, Shane Reti - Tags: , ,

This is a repost of Mountain Tui’s substack article: post

Often when folks ask me what we can do about this government’s short sighted and often dubious policies, I frequently veer to a similar answer:

Share information, stay aware, act locally where you can, stay positive, and wait.

Wait – for what?

Well tonight it became clear.

Last night it was revealed, Health NZ, now led by Luxon’s man. Lester Levy, recommended that the way to manage things going forward including Dunedin hospital’s “cost blowout” was to privatise our hospitals.

Before we proceed and to be clear –

1. There is NO “cost blowout”.

As the Mayor of Dunedin noted, the government intentionally increased the scope of the project and inflated costs

2. The government is refusing to release the rest of the Dunedin hospital estimates, citing it as commercially sensitive. That is very suspect – especially as their first tranch was revealed as bogus accounting.

3. NZ has the money. It is just being used for other priorities: tobacco, roads, charter schools, tax cuts, landlords, trusts etc.

[In addition we have the option of debt, although personally I think that this has been a simple case of extreme economic mismanagement from the start.]

Maybe the “wealthy and sorted” Prime Minister Luxon should have listened to his Trump loving idol, John Key and held off on the $35bn of tax cuts over 10 years?

This government is a true disciple of privatisation, corporatisation and the wealthiest.

Yes, even their tax cuts benefited the wealthiest disproportionately, just as Donald Trump will do for his billionaire backers.

Before the election, Taxpayers Union’s Jordan Williams told his Atlas Network Alliance the right wing parties would win and Taxpayers Union would be helping them to “formulate policy positions”, and take advantage of it all to “restablish New Zealand as a leader of freedom” i.e liberatarianism – which is just trickle down economics and pro-capitalism

They haven’t set a foot wrong – for their goals.

At every single turn, we see Luxon and co. narrate and parrot after the likes of NZ Initative and bow at the feet of capitalistic thought.

Alan Gibbs, the mega-donor and Godfather of ACT once told his party to be more radical and privatise everything in NZ – education, roads, hospitals.

But he’s not the only mega-wealthy one behind this government.

NZ’s richest man Graeme Hart donated $700K in donations to National, ACT and NZ First.

Best Start’s The Wright Family who fund The Platform – listen to Sean Plunkett and you will know what the politics is.

“What is this crazy fixation, love affair, with the the state running things?” Alan Gibbs had lamented years ago.

And the time for them is now.

All that is happening has been sequenced like a business playbook.

For example, this government initially wanted to scale back Nelson hospital (May). However a couple of months ago, they came back saying the cost could be the same, but they still refused to adopt the large scale build that was optimised and designed for Nelson. Instead the government proposed smaller builds, leading to some head scratching on why.

The ‘why’ became clear with Dunedin hospital. i.e. They could not allow Nelson hospital to set a precedent for a large model build because the government needed an excuse to tap down Dunedin.

As those of you who read here know, I have been following Health NZ developments very closely.

From their manufactured $1.4bn “miraculously appearing” deficit [not – Luxon knew about it in October 2023] to the somewhat sham crisis appointment of Lester Levy from Chair to Health Commissioner, to the Nelson hospital decision, to the Dunedin $1.3bn blowout lie, this has always been a series of steps to privatise health.

And now they showed their hand.

TVNZ was happy to echo communications for the government (emphasis mine)

The health agency is suggesting the Government to consider allowing private companies to build – and potentially run – the country’s public hospitals…

On the suggestion, Minister of Health Shane Reti said: “..The most obvious [advantage] is the freeing up of capital that the Crown can then deploy elsewhere.“

And more capital is needed.

Much to the dismay of Dunedin, it was revealed last week their future hospital will be downgraded due to a budget blowout. However, it’s not the only project with issues.

Yes, Reti has spoken. And the media is helping to spread the communique.

This signal is unequivocal.

They want NZ to transform itself, over time, to the UK and the USA health system.

Ditto our education system. Ditto roads. Ditto infrastructure. They are playing the long game.

For those of you who have not, follow the deterioration of the NHS from a world class health system to a broken and replete shell to see why it’s a bad idea.

It started breaking from austerity policies, which are always used as an excuse to privatise.

The implications to all of us are very real…even as record numbers of Kiwis continue to join private health care.

And I should have known – this government had already started planting the seeds of privatised health to its base weeks ago:

While the left run after every ball, bone and outrageous statement from this government, their operatives work strategically step by step like a business playbook.

We’ve been asleep.

So – it’s time for action now.

We need our political parties and communities across NZ to protest for health.

Yet stay focused, alert, informed and most of all – peaceful.

To demand this government amend its priorities and budgets for the well being of Kiwis, and not corporate interests.

Our task is not easy when corporate media dominates. But it can be done.

Our task is hardest because the government has a clear playbook it needs to run through – and believe it or not, we are not even a year in yet.

Let’s act, Aotearoa NZ – the time is now or never.

Please pass this message on to those in your network and communities that may benefit from participation, awareness, co-operation and action.

I will also be preparing more details on what you can do to help.

And remember: action and messaging should be on-point, effective, and clear.

PS This is a helpful graph

41 comments on “NZ Right Wing Government Moves to Privatise Health ”

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  1. Adrian 1
    2 October 2024 at 10:14 am

    Bastards ! The only answer must be mass protest. If 35,000 turn out in Dunedin and 300 in Wānaka ( that hot bed of lefty radicalism, sarc ) then there is definitely a movement building. We that can, need to do all we can to help it along. Strangely I think Winston may be the only hope, he is always nervous about his support and is in the most precarious position of all the parties, only needing to lose a bit over 1% to be out, and he may be forced to spit the dummy. An early election may be on the cards. So donate now to your party of lefty choice or even volunteer to help. These self-serving bastards have to be stopped.

  2. PsyclingLeft.Always 2
    2 October 2024 at 10:40 am

    Some of us (onya Mountain Tui, Mickey Savage et al)…knew that behind the manufactured Health crisis, privatisation was always the goal.

    Last night it was revealed, Health NZ, now led by Luxon’s man. Lester Levy, recommended that the way to manage things going forward including Dunedin hospital’s “cost blowout” was to privatise our hospitals.

    And where is..the money?

    3. NZ has the money. It is just being used for other priorities: tobacco, roads, charter schools, tax cuts, landlords, trusts etc.

    RNZ's Phil Pennington : Priorities aye….

    As for infrastruture spending, health spending is surprisingly small.

    Pennington says a look at Treasury investments from earlier this year, when a chart released on investment planning revealed a figure of about $90b, $70b of that was on roads. Only $2b was spent on health.

    The Spinoff's Hayden Donnell

    Hayden Donnell, roads are most definitely the touchy part. He's written an article about the government's comparative spending titled 'The things that are unaffordable and the things that aren't'.

    He compares the "unaffordable" $3b of Dunedin Hospital to some road projects that are far larger ticket items, including the guestimate of $10b for the Wellington long tunnel, and the four lane highway planned from Auckland to Whangarei that Infrastructure New Zealand says will eat up 10 percent of New Zealand's total infrastructure (not just transport) spend.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/529486/dunedin-hospital-s-low-place-in-infrastructure-must-haves-list

    As you say Mountain Tui..NZ must stand together on this. Its the only way to stop NACT1 from destroying our NZ Health System. I dont think they have quite realised the depth of feeling. Their arrogance comes before..their fall.

  3. Belladonna 3
    2 October 2024 at 10:53 am

    Not arguing that privatization may well be a goal.

    However, there is nothing manufactured about the health crisis. We don't have sufficient health infrastructure (whether that's buildings or staff or specialist expertise) to meet our health needs as a country.

    • Kay 3.1
      2 October 2024 at 11:02 am

      However, there is nothing manufactured about the health crisis.

      Well yes, there is. Deliberate refusal to initiate forward planning for the health sector workforce over several decades now.

      Deliberately letting hospitals run down to the point where what quick fixes now require total rebuilds.

      The refusal to bring GPs into the public system.

      If that isn't a manufactured crisis?

      • Belladonna 3.1.1
        2 October 2024 at 12:47 pm

        Well yes, there is. Deliberate refusal to initiate forward planning for the health sector workforce over several decades now.

        So, all governments over the last several decades are equally culpable?

        • Kay 3.1.1.1
          2 October 2024 at 1:39 pm

          On health workforce planning, definitely. I'm an equal opportunity criticiser.

          • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.1.1.1
            2 October 2024 at 2:09 pm

            Sadly, our CoC govt's 'solution' is moar privatisation of health services – queue Coleman, Cigareti & Levy. You're not a patient, you're a (paying) 'client'.

            In New Zealand, we recognise the value to our clients in adapting a service to them. We do this for clients every day.
            …
            That’s why we are passionate about making a difference to our team, clients and partners.

            https://www.habit.health/about-us/who-we-are

            Who is Lester Levy, the man replacing Health NZ board?
            [24 July 2024]
            However, Christchurch surgeon Phil Bagshaw, founder of the Canterbury Charity Hospital, said Levy’s promises were “neo-liberal fantasy”.

            “The health system has been seriously underfunded for decades. Anybody who thinks they can come in an make sweeping changes to the system should talk to the doctors and nurses who are working themselves to exhaustion to keep a failing system going,” he said.

            "It is what happens to our most vulnerable that is the critical issue.” Captures it perfectly. The main focus of the global economy over the last 40 years (the neo-liberal coups) has been to grow inequality.

    • SPC 3.2
      2 October 2024 at 11:45 am

      Training and retaining staff and investment in hospitals would cost less than the new road plans and with billions left over.

    • Mountain Tui 3.3
      2 October 2024 at 12:00 pm

      Their crisis was 100% manufactured.

      • Belladonna 3.3.1
        2 October 2024 at 12:45 pm

        No. The ballooning of waiting times, and failure to treat in a timely manner have been getting worse for decades. It may not be a crisis in your book, but waiting for more than a year for a specialist appointment, is a crisis in mine.

        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300950265/thousands-waiting-more-than-a-year-for-planned-medical-treatment

        • Mountain Tui 3.3.1.1
          2 October 2024 at 1:04 pm

          It's a manufactured crisis 100% – that doesn't mean there have not been weaknesses in our health system.

          Refer chart above – this government is worse than Key's – health funding is in the deficit now.

          And it means this government is intentionally starving it and breaking it down. Doctors and nurses have been whistleblowing for months for a reason.

          Their narratives have all been lies: from the $3bn Dunedin hospital "blowout" to the $1.4b "unexpected" deficit that Luxon admitted he knew about in October 2023.

          "That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital" – Chomsky

        • KJT 3.3.1.2
          2 October 2024 at 2:31 pm

          Disaster Capitalism.

          Deliberately fuck the State system to justify your private capital cronies getting their greedy mitts into it. It is a manufactured crisis!

          Started this time around with part privatisation during Keys time. The food provision and laboratory fiasco's were just the "tip of the iceberg".

          Of course our infrastructure and services have been steadily run down and flogged off, since the Neo-Liberal fantasy took over 40 years ago.

    • Tony Veitch 3.4
      2 October 2024 at 4:21 pm

      Read the graph!

      Your beloved Natz underfunded Health for decades. Labour did better, but the current shower (the CoC) are a disgrace!

      • Belladonna 3.4.1
        2 October 2024 at 5:39 pm

        The comment I was replying to was

        Training and retaining staff and investment in hospitals would cost less than the new road plans and with billions left over.

        If you, too think that this is a realistic financial argument – have at it!

        If it was really that 'cheap' then what's the reason Labour didn't fully fund it?

  4. Kay 4
    2 October 2024 at 11:05 am

    I'm interested to know what these privatisation zealots want to have happen to the many NZers who can't get health insurance due to pre-existing conditions, themselves included.

  5. Drowsy M. Kram 5
    2 October 2024 at 11:59 am

    Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed. – Einstein

    The real reason behind Act’s push to redefine the Treaty principles
    [30 Sept 2024]
    Some say the Treaty Principles Bill is rooted in ignorance, but Rupert O’Brien argues the Act Party is making a calculated move to remove a significant barrier to its privatisation and deregulation agenda.

    A privatisation blast from the past – Air NZ, BNZ, Auckland Airport, ECNZ, Govt Print, Ministry of Works and Development, NZ Steel, POSB, Telecon NZ, NZ Rail…

    Our self-serving CoC MPs are certainly privatisation-friendly, and NAct's donors will be wetting themselves at the prospect of profiting off privatisation / asset stripping.

    Generating Scarcity [PDF]
    A decade of data shows next to no growth in national generating capacity against $11 billion in dividends for shareholders, 142 percent of net profit after tax.

    A 320-word letter in the Gisborne Herald dovetails nicely with MT's excellent post.

    Privatisation costs us all [31 July 2024; excerpts]
    Usually if the National and Act parties defund public services, and pretend there are 14 levels of management when there aren’t, and budget shortfalls when it’s government choice, it leads to privatisation.

    Last time in govt, food services (not in Gisborne thankfully), breast screening and various other auxiliary functions were privatised around New Zealand. That’s much more expensive than being funded directly. Private providers charge more as they redirect profit for their shareholders.
    …
    Previous National govts have been working their way through public assets and every time they’re in government, we lose more ownership.

    Last time it was power generators and retailers, state houses (all 1140 in Tauranga) and part of Air NZ. Since then our prices for services and rents have increased.

    Luxon even said last week that he’s not averse to Kiwibank being sold. We have Kiwibank because we were getting ripped off by the Australian banks, thanks to Jim Anderton who was in a coalition with the Labour Party.

    From banks, housing, charter schools, ferries, ACC (too soon?), water etc. etc., to our public health services, there's very little our self-serving CoC MPs wouldn't serve up to their backers, the goal being privatisation of everything from which a buck can be extracted.

    Doesn't end well, but the 'top' 10% will be salivating – private capital never sleeps.


    https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/16-08-2022/the-side-eyes-two-new-zealands-the-table

  6. Mike the Lefty 6
    2 October 2024 at 1:19 pm

    Privatisation would certainly be the most convenient way for this government to get the problem of public health off their hands – Public Health, nasty, inconvenient – too much like hard work.

    Parts of the system would be auctioned out to the lowest bidder – a race to the bottom. It would become like the US, different levels of hospitals where you would go according to how much you can pay or how much health insurance you have.

    Do we forget the signs over every public hospital entrance during the Bolger government that read "cashier"?

    But the public would be bombarded with claims how much more efficient it would be using data carefully manufactured and handpicked to make it easy to sell the private model.

    Public health must be a service, not a business.

    • ianmac 6.1
      2 October 2024 at 1:40 pm

      "Do we forget the signs over every public hospital entrance during the Bolger government that read "cashier"?

      I remember paying the part payment for my toddler's short stay in public hospital.

      The part payment was discontinued because it cost more to process than the sum paid. Even then in the 90s it was a warning shot about privatisation. And in the Key years remember the non upkeep/replacement schemes? Yes. Let us run-down the public system to justify privatisation. Bastards1

    • Jack 6.2
      3 October 2024 at 7:26 am

      What's not to like if you are on the right? With government spending some 40% of GDP there is a lot of money to be made if you can get control of the action. The business they most attracted to is where they can privatise the gains and socialise the losses. Get rid of pesky public servants and you are on your way!

  7. feijoa 7
    2 October 2024 at 1:56 pm

    I have worked in both public and private health.

    The public system has been screwed over for many years by constant restructuring and incompetent management- ie, management that doesn't serve the staff nor the public, only the bottom line. Doesn't mean that a public health system isn't right though- a public health system is cheaper to run, is for everybody, and can reach into areas like prevention which private systems are poor at.

    In addition, in NZ currently the difference between public and private health are stark. The private hospitals are full of people who are basically rich, well resourced and well. By that I mean being seen early and few other health or social problems. They run essentially 5 days a week. The complexities of health needs in public are on another level altogether.

    The private hospitals in my city are expanding however, new builds and cranes overhead, rubbing their hands in glee.

    • tc 7.1
      2 October 2024 at 3:34 pm

      Yes their time has come under the coalition.

      Expect the low hanging fruit like imaging, something they do already, to fall fully into private hands whilst remaining on hospital sites.

      Every opportunity to use public resources for private gain folks.

  8. bwaghorn 8
    2 October 2024 at 4:36 pm

    The national party are so incompetent they can't build a hospital should be the banner headline on the nz news sites

  9. Ad 9
    3 October 2024 at 11:08 am

    This is not a manufactured crisis for the customer-patient-citizen.

    This is a decade-long corrosion of health services despite billions more being pumped into it by successive governments particularly Labour.

    So what you are seeing now is a huge surge in Southern Cross membership year-on-year, reuslting in a much higher reliance on Mercy Hospital and other private super-clinics.

    Notably about 50% of Southern Cross membership is from business ie it's a benefit that keeps people loyal to them.

    The much weaker form of this is the Marram Trust within the public service.

    No one with half a brain or $500 to put together would trust the public health system now or in the remainder of this term with their bodily health or the health of their children. it is waaaaay too risky to take that amount of time to get into the system and then be rationed into chronic sickness.

    We like to clam that we used to have an effective public health system. Maybe that was true 50 years ago for public health.

    Actually when you think rationally you don't trust the public health system with your life. It's just not worth the risk. So you go private.

    • SPC 9.1
      3 October 2024 at 2:30 pm

      One could help those with less means (paying rent) by including sickness in ACC. We are moving in towards that by funding more drugs via Pharmac (but no where enough).

      1. reduce decline to endemic sickness

      2. assist in getting people back to work capability

    • Drowsy M. Kram 9.2
      3 October 2024 at 3:19 pm

      Actually when you think rationally you don't trust the public health system with your life. It's just not worth the risk. So you go private.

      Which private hospitals in NZ offer A&E services? I trust our generally excellent and dedicated health professionals in the public health service with my life. If going private in an emergency is (somehow) an option for you, then presumably you have a way of informing ambulance staff which private hospital you want to be admitted to?

      A little story from the Tū – recently a friend in their 80s suffered a stroke around breakfast time. They were able to press a help button to alert staff, and an ambulance took them to nearby Palmy hospital. From there they were helicoptered to Wellington hospital for emergency (same day) surgery to remove a blood clot in the brain. Now back home (after a short stay in Palmy hospital), and only a little the worse for wear.

      Trust NZ's public health service with my life – you betcha, and more power to them.

      Trust our CoC govt with the welfare of our public health services – not on your life.

      Privatisation costs us all [31 July 2024; excerpts]
      It’s interesting that Dr Shane Reti has partial ownership and shares in private medical practices and facilities. These are declared individually or in blind trusts. https://wheretheystand.nz/people/shane-reti/interests
      …
      Usually if the National and Act parties defund public services, and pretend there are 14 levels of management when there aren’t, and budget shortfalls when it’s government choice, it leads to privatisation.

      Last time in government, food services (not in Gisborne thankfully), breast screening and various other auxiliary functions were privatised around New Zealand. That’s much more expensive than being funded directly. Private providers charge more as they redirect profit for their shareholders.

      In the United States people are bankrupted or die as they can’t afford healthcare, with the United Kingdom getting to that stage.

      Previous National govts have been working their way through public assets and every time they’re in government, we lose more ownership.
      …
      Please, we can’t let these carpetbaggers take more of our assets and service roles.

      • Ad 9.2.1
        3 October 2024 at 7:38 pm

        I marched proudly for Dunedin Hospital on the weekend.

        And I've got plenty of close relatives for whom I'm most thankful to doctors nurses and specialists.

        But going private gives a public bed for those who can't afford private.

        • Drowsy M. Kram 9.2.1.1
          3 October 2024 at 7:59 pm

          I marched proudly for Dunedin Hospital on the weekend.

          yes Did I misinterpret "…don't trust the public health system with your life. It's just not worth the risk"? I was wondering if that might play into the hands of privatisers.

          Is "going private" for altruistic reasons truly philanthropic, if it's only freeing up a bed in a health system that can't be trusted?

          I trust our public health staff to do their level best, even under the circumstances.

          • Ad 9.2.1.1.1
            3 October 2024 at 10:19 pm

            They're lovely and dedicated and ruined.

            • Drowsy M. Kram 9.2.1.1.1.1
              3 October 2024 at 11:59 pm

              They're lovely and dedicated and ruined.

              So, sticking with your "…don't trust the public health system with your life. It's just not worth the risk." My experience must be the exception that proves the ‘risky’ and 'ruined' narrative, and I’d wish that standard of care for everyone. Certainly there’s always room for improved funding of our public health services, Dr Lester Levy's mandate notwithstanding.

              Urgent review of the existing funding model [3 Oct 2024]
              We have seen tens of thousands of people protesting on the streets of Dunedin for a new hospital. Whilst we agree this is important, we also see it as imperative to ensure patients don’t end up unnecessarily in hospitals and that is where the increased investment in primary and community health can help with this issue and save taxpayers money.

              Gordon Campbell On The Mindset Driving The Crisis In Public Health [16 Sept 2024]
              These problems have been decades in the making, but the response by the coalition government has been particularly abysmal. The 4% offer in government funding support to GP practices made in May was not just below the annual inflation rate, but marked the lowest such offer in 20 years. At the same time, Health Minister Shane Reti has given the greenlight for GPs to raise their fees in order to help make up the funding shortfall.

              Who is Lester Levy, the man replacing Health NZ board?
              [24 July 2024]
              However, Christchurch surgeon Phil Bagshaw, founder of the Canterbury Charity Hospital, said Levy’s promises were “neo-liberal fantasy”.

              “The health system has been seriously underfunded for decades. Anybody who thinks they can come in an make sweeping changes to the system should talk to the doctors and nurses who are working themselves to exhaustion to keep a failing system going,” he said.

              “It is what happens to our most vulnerable that is the critical issue.” Captures it perfectly. The main focus of the global economy over the last 40 years (the neo-liberal coups) has been to grow inequality.

              https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/19/why-im-quietly-rooting-for-health-commissioner-lester-levy/

  10. Kay 10
    4 October 2024 at 9:02 am

    Already there are procedures no longer done in the public system, for example, varicose veins. Not officially, but in reality.

    A more recent situation I found myself in was a plastic surgeon (public) informing me that it was vital I had an cyst removed from my face (no GP would touch it because if the proximity to my eye), but in the next breath made it quite clear that it would never happen in the public system. Fortunately I had a relative who was able to pay the bill of over $1000 for said procedure to be done privately, ironically at the private practice that same surgeon works at.

    Point being, there's already uninsured/low income people being denied medical treatment. My cyst kept going infected and could've easily ended up as a medical emergency- that would require the public system at a much bigger cost.

    What on earth are we meant to do? This is absolutely terrifying for so many people.