Funding to Māori Health Providers 2015/16 to 2019/20

This report shows information on funding to Māori health providers by the Ministry of Health (the Ministry) and District Health Boards (DHBs) for the period 2015/16 to 2019/20. This report follows on from our report in 2017 on the same topic and is part of our monitoring of Whakamaua: Māori Health Action Plan 2020-2025.

Highlights include:

• funding to Māori health providers by the Ministry of Health and District Health Boards was $340.8 million in 2019/20, an increase of $65.7 million (or 23.9%) since 2015/16
• although funding to Māori health providers is increasing, it remains a small part of Vote Health, increasing from 2.40 percent in 2015/16 to 2.48 percent in 2019/20
• between 2015/16 and 2019/20, the average increase in funding to Māori health providers by DHBs (32.7 percent) was greater than the increase in DHBs’ crown funding (19.3%). Seven DHBs increased their funding to Māori health providers by more than 30 percent
• included in this report is a table from our 2017 report and a corresponding table covering the new period so readers can compare figures from the old report to the new report
• the Ministry has begun measuring other types of funding not included in our 2017 report: funding to Māori primary health organisations, Māori general practices, for Hauora Māori Scholarships, and payments for the delivery of COVID-19 services. These payments increased by $28.1 million between 2015/16 and 2019/20, or 37.8 percent. This is higher than the increase in Vote Health during the same time (23.0 percent).