Māori child health inequities cost society over $170m annually, research shows

Wednesday, 18 January 2023

Māori families bear most of the cost of health inequities while the Government saves money.

Health inequities for Māori children cost society more than $170 million a year, new research shows.

The economic cost of Indigenous child health inequities in Aotearoa New Zealand – an updated analysis for 2003-2014, was published in the New Zealand Medical Journal on Friday.

Researchers from the University of Auckland and University of Otago concluded that Māori families bear most of the cost while the Government actually saves money.

“Health inequities have significant economic costs: on families, on communities, on health systems and on national economies,” the authors say.

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'This growing evidence base contradicts the misconception that eliminating health inequities is costly, but rather the cost of ‘doing nothing’ to address inequity is itself significant.'

The research found Māori children used primary healthcare, outpatient care, medicines, and laboratory investigations less than non-Māori, and had higher rates of avoidable hospitalisations and deaths.

'The healthcare utilisation picture in our study is one of a failure to deliver care for Māori children,” the authors say.

But health inequities for Māori children actually save the government health sector $4m a year.

'The higher rate of avoidable hospitalisation for Māori children cost the government health sector $9.2m each year,” the authors say.

'However, because the government health sector also received significant savings from the under-servicing of Māori children of other parts of the health system, there is a net annual saving of over $4m to the government.'

The cost of these inequalities to society is around $175m annually, but the burden of this cost is not shared equally.

“We are able to demonstrate that there are economic consequences of Indigenous health inequities, and that these costs are borne disproportionately by Māori families while the Government benefits from cost savings,” the authors say.

'It actually costs the government less to admit Māori children to hospital for ambulatory sensitive conditions than it would to prevent or treat them early in primary care.'

The authors conclude the government health sector does not have a financial imperative to do things better.

But 'doing nothing” to change child health inequities has a high economic cost to Māori families and society.

'The distribution of costs is a clear breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and contributes to the further exacerbation of poverty and economic drivers of health inequities for Māori in New Zealand.'