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

This publication summarises funding to Māori health providers by the Ministry of Health and District Health Boards from 2015/16 to 2019/20. It follows on from our 2017 report.

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).