Funding to Māori Health Providers 2018/19 to 2022/23

This report shows information on funding to Māori health providers by the Ministry of Health, Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka whai Ora for the period 2018/19 to 2022/23. This report follows on from our reports in 2017, 2021 and 2022 on the same topic and is part of our monitoring of Whakamaua: Māori Health Action Plan 2020-2053.

Highlights include:

• funding to Māori health providers was $523.5 million in 2022/23, an increase of $213.6 million (or 68.9%) since 2018/19 (see Table 1)
• although funding to Māori health providers is increasing, it remains a small part of Vote Health, at 2.48 % in 2022/23
• the Ministry has begun measuring Other types of funding not included in the figures above (see Table 2). These are: Māori primary health organisations, Māori general practices, and payments for the delivery of COVID-19 services. These payments increased by $196.1 million between 2018/19 and 2022/23, or 210.4%. This is higher than the increase in Vote Health during the same time (26.1%)
• Measuring Other types of funding is subject to large fluctuations particularly funding to Māori PHOs. The fluctuations are due to new PHOs being created, closures and amalgamation of PHOs; and general practices moving between PHOs. Because of this, Table 1 may be a more consistent way to measure changes in funding to Māori health providers.

Total funding to Māori health providers (tables 1 and 2 combined) increased from $403.1 million in 2018/19 to $812.8 million in 2022/23, an increase of $409.7 million or 101.6 percent.