Health Minister Simeon Brown. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
For the health sector it's largely a 'no surprises' Budget, with all the big-ticket items having already been announced - including a $447m boost for primary care, urgent and after-hours care.
Getting a prescription is set to get cheaper for people with long-term conditions like asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure, with a move to allow 12-month prescriptions from June. That is set to cost $91m.
Overall, the health budget now tops $31b in 2025/26 - an increase of less than 5 percent (4.77 percent) for the year. That includes the "cost pressure funding" to which the government committed in last year's Budget of $16m over six years.
Health Minister Simeon Brown said the government's "record investment" in health was already delivering results, in terms of more elective surgeries, GP appointments, and other critical healthcare services.
"Budget 2025 also invests over $1 billion in new capital to deliver modern, fit-for-purpose infrastructure that meets the health needs of New Zealand's growing and ageing population.
"We're also making real progress on our health targets. Emergency department wait times are coming down, cancer patients are being seen faster, and childhood immunisation rates are improving."
Budget 2025 initiatives include:
- $81.2m this year for increased access to urgent and after-hours care, helping to reduce pressure on emergency departments
- expanding the primary care workforce, including training more doctors and nurses locally
- 24/7 access to digital primary care for online medical consultations, making it easier for people to get advice and prescriptions from their own homes
- easier access to long-term prescriptions and broader prescribing rights
- streamlined transfers from hospital to aged care, helping free up inpatient hospital beds and improve continuity of care - set to cost $6m, funded through "reprioritisation from the Ministry of Health's baselines"
- increased funding for the Health and Disability Commissioner to improve complaint resolution and care standards
- support for a new multi-agency response to mental health distress calls ($2.2m for hospital services in this year's Budget, rising to $7.7m in 2028/29 plus $ 511m for primary sector, rising to $29m
- over $1b for health infrastructure, including redeveloping Nelson Hospital, Wellington Emergency Department and upgrading Auckland Hospital.
"We are delivering on our promise to put patients first," Brown said.
"This additional investment of 7.4 percent in total funding represents an increase of 6.2 percent per capita, which will make a real difference to people's lives - ensuring timely, high-quality care for patients while supporting our frontline workforce who deliver that care every day."
The Budget includes $2.7 for capital expenditure, mainly to fix and upgrade crumbling hospital infrastructure, projects like the new Dunedin Hospital Development - but also to resolve all the claims from historical non-compliance with the Holidays Act.
Pay equity
Last year's Budget included $420m to provide "equity injections to health entities to contribute towards the costs of pay equity and equivalent settlement" but nothing allocated for 2025/26.
The two big pay equity deals that had already been signed off - hospital midwives and allied, scientific and technical staff - are budgeted to cost $221m a year.
Holidays Act remediation
Cost $1.3b in the current year - budgeted to cost another $325m this year.
Abuse in care
This year's health budget includes another $1.4m for redress payments, on top of the $12.6m in the current year.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
