Public health wait times are now excruciating — for just about every ailment, injury, and disease. Take the Canterbury district as an example:¹

• You should expect to wait 85–199 days to see a cardiologist. That’s about three to six months. Heart problems should obviously be checked out a lot more quickly than that — but there is simply no capacity.
• If your GP refers you to an oncology specialist, you’ll wait 22–84 days (3 to 12 weeks). This is very concerning because, “Even a four week delay of cancer treatment is associated with increased mortality [i.e., death]”² and even a two-week delay in receiving treatment for some cancers could increase your relative risk of death by 4%. An 8-week delay could see your relative risk of death rise by 17%.³
• You face a whopping 221 day wait (seven months) for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy. Breast cancer affects more Kiwi women than any other — about one in nine, with the risk rapidly increasing from age 30 to 40.

The situation is similar around most of New Zealand. Wait times for essential surgery have increased dramatically over the past decade. Take breast cancer — the most common cancer among Kiwi women. In 2018–2020, only 36% of women diagnosed received their first surgery within 31 days.⁴ Meanwhile, in Australia, 90% had surgery within the same period, and half within 14 days.⁵

New Zealand’s public health system is buckling under the weight of poor funding and increasing illness. Medical staff are overworked, under-resourced, and frequently just not available. Because of this…

• Wait times for diagnostic testing, specialist appointments, and surgeries are now often extended weeks and months beyond accepted norms.
• Surgeries are often cancelled suddenly, even on the very day they were scheduled — a situation which has become such a crisis that a leading Christchurch surgeon recently called on the prime minister to intervene⁶ (spoiler alert: he punted instead).
• People suffering with incredible pain frequently cannot even get onto a wait list unless their conditions actually become life-threatening.

Sadly, many Kiwis are only discovering this once they are sick. The result: suffering, harm, and sometimes even death.

But you don’t need to move to Australia to avoid it. There is a simpler option.

Private health insurance is an affordable way to cut wait times from months to days. It guarantees that you or loved ones will be looked after quickly if you get sick. Finding the right insurance is extremely easy thanks to modern online tools.

Fewer doctors + more patients = a situation that keeps getting worse

New Zealand has a chronic shortage of health professionals — not just doctors, but nurses and specialist surgeons too. This has been greatly exacerbated by covid vaccine policies that fired up to 30% of an already critically-depleted workforce.

This alone would sufficient to label our public health system a disaster zone — but it gets worse. A large percentage of the health professionals we currently have are in their 50s or 60s.

In other words, they are due to retire soon.

So are they being replaced? In a word, no.

Many of our freshly-trained doctors go overseas within five years of registration. And less than 50% of young overseas-trained medical professionals who move to New Zealand will stay permanently. The ones that do stay…tend to be the older ones who want to retire.⁷

The simple fact is, health professionals can make far more money in far better conditions if they move to places like Australia. Our public health system has deteriorated under a consistent shortfall of funding over the past 15 years or more. Even the physical infrastructure of our hospitals is now in a seriously run-down condition. An already out-of-date estimate (2018) says that $14 billion dollars would barely scratch the surface of what is required to bring our hospitals up to fit-for-purpose levels.⁸

Meanwhile, Kiwis are getting sick at an ever-accelerating rate:

• We have a 38.5% chance of developing cancer before the age of 75.⁹
• The number of us with type 2 diabetes will increase by up to 90% before 2040.¹⁰
• We have the highest melanoma rate in the world.¹¹
• And heart disease will claim the lives of every third one of us.¹²

Like our doctors, our population is ageing — and we’re increasingly unhealthy. So the wait time problem is only going to get worse.

In the past, Kiwis have assumed that our public health system would be there to look after them if anything bad happened. The bare truth is, this is no longer the case. You can no longer rely on the public health system if you get sick. And the situation will only get worse over the next few decades unless there is a complete reversal.

So what should you do?

There is only one alternative: private health insurance. This ensure that testing, specialist assessments, and treatment, all happen much faster. Plus, many policies offer options for alternative treatments. Some policies will pay for you to have treatment overseas, and will even cover pre-existing conditions.

“I’ve seen the doctor, had some tests … I’m still waiting”

Kristy, a mother of two and an engineer, has terminal cancer. It was diagnosed at stage three, and she had several months of chemotherapy and surgery — which should have been closely followed by a course of radiation.¹³

She ended up waiting three months for the radiation.

“The bottom line is, she waited far too long for radiation therapy,” says radiation oncologist Melissa James.

Kristy was recently admitted to a hospice.

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Jo, a 22 year old, has a genetic disorder that causes joint dislocations so often that she no longer goes to hospital — she just pushes it back into place.¹⁴

Despite being on powerful painkillers, Jo lives in constant pain. She has desperately waiting for a surgery date. She thought she had one last October — but it was cancelled because there were no beds. The hospital told her she might get one in August. Last we heard, she was still waiting.

Jo struggles with suicidal thoughts.

No one should have to go through such a thing. But the only way to avoid it, is to avoid the public health system.

What would you pay for a couple more years with your kids?

Auckland couple Graham and Mery face a death sentence. They were both diagnosed with terminal cancer only months apart. They may have six months left to live.¹⁵

Graham and Mery have two young boys, 11 and 9. 

There are drugs available that doctors believe could give them a few more years with their children. But these drugs are not covered by Pharmac, New Zealand’s public health drug subsidy.

Graham and Mery now face a heart-rending struggle to raise the money they need:

• Graham’s treatment costs $11,000 per month, and he’ll need it for 12 months — a total of $132,000.
• Mery’s treatment will cost $90,000 for a six month course, followed by another $2,200 every month after that.

How can any family afford over $222,000? But if Graham and Mery had private health insurance, there is a good chance they would already be receiving treatment with these special drugs. Sadly, they relied on our public health system.

Even non-life-threatening illnesses can ruin your life if you’re stuck in the public health waiting queue

Jessica, a 34 year old mother, started getting headaches two years ago. At first, they came on once or twice a week. She thought it was the stress of her new job. She had recently had a promotion and was now managing a busy senior HR role.

When the headaches became more intense, she  went to her GP. He prescribed her pain meds, and referred her for an MRI scan. Jessica heard nothing for several weeks, until a letter arrived with the MRI appointment scheduled in three months’ time.

Meanwhile, the headaches slowly got worse. The pain meds helped a little, but not much, and they made her fuzzy — so it was hard to work. By the time of her appointment she had already taken two half-days because she couldn’t work properly.

With the MRI completed, she was told she’d get a call from her GP with next steps. Hearing nothing for 2 weeks, she finally called him. They couldn’t find anything wrong in the scan: perhaps it might be a sinus issue. The GP said he’d refer her to an ENT specialist.

After three weeks, Jessica finally got a letter confirming that she had been added to the waitlist for the ENT specialist. She should expect an initial consultation between six and eight months down the track.

Four months later she received a followup letter, scheduling her appointment in three months’ time — at a hospital in another town 2 hours away.

By this time, her headaches had become severe, and her work was starting to suffer. By the time the consult came around, she had used up all her sick leave, so she used annual leave to go to the appointment.

When she arrived, she was told the specialist was off sick, and they would have to reschedule. They had called her an hour before the appointment to let her know — while she was driving.

After several days, she got another letter saying her appointment had been rescheduled for the following week. When she finally saw the specialist, he could not find anything wrong, and referred her for a CT scan.

That was three weeks ago. She is still waiting for a CT appointment. She has used all her annual leave for sick days, and finds it so hard to work that she is afraid she will lose her job before she even gets the appointment.

She still doesn’t know what is making her sick, let alone how to treat it, or how long it will take before she is well again.

Jessica doesn’t know what to do. If she loses her job, she’s afraid she will lose her house and won’t be able to feed her kids.

Her GP has told her that going private would bypass all the wait lists — but she can’t afford to pay for expensive tests and treatment out of her own pocket.

While Jessica is a composite character, she is entirely based on actual stories of actual Kiwis. This is the new normal for many people stuck in our public health waiting queue.

This is why Kiwis are turning to private health insurance. They want peace of mind that illnesses or accidents won’t cost them months or years of their lives — or tens of thousands of dollars.

Health insurance can dramatically improve your health outcomes

Like any other type of insurance, health insurance protects you from tomorrow’s events, in return for a small investment today. The right health insurance policy offers you:

• Much faster testing, diagnostics, and surgeries.
• Better post-surgery care.
• Access to non-Pharmac drugs and other expensive treatments.

Surveys also show that patients with health insurance take fewer days off work.¹⁶

One thing you can never know is when you, your spouse, or your child might face an accident or significant illness.

But one thing you do know is that, if that day comes, New Zealand’s public health system will not provide the care you need.

Private health insurance guarantees that care.

There was a time when choosing a good health insurance policy was very difficult. Understanding all the different terms, options, exclusions and benefits is extremely hard — and there is always some doubt that the insurance provider will even pay out when the time comes. The fine print can make all the difference when it comes to claim time.

This is no longer the case. Services like Policywise make it easy to find the very best cover that matches your needs and budget. They provide an easy-to-understand comparison of policies from hand-picked insurance providers, so you can see exactly what each offers. And they can advise you on any known medical conditions, exclusions, stand down periods, and other fine details.

Best of all, this service is 100% free for all Kiwis. The quotes are exactly what each individual insurer will offer you, if you went directly to them. You simply get them with the extra benefit of expert advice from industry insiders.

Footnotes

1. Official Information Act request ChChD (Canterbury District) 10880 ↩

2. The BMJ, Mortality due to cancer treatment delay: systematic review and meta-analysis ↩

3. Breast Cancer Foundational National Register, Register Report 2003–2020 ↩

4. Official Information Act request ChChD (Canterbury District) 10880 ↩

5. Breast Cancer Foundation NZ, 30,000 voices: Informing a better future for breast cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand ↩

6. Stuff, Leading surgeon calls on prime minister to intervene over Christchurch surgery crisis ↩

7. Medical Council of NZ, The New Zealand Medical Workforce in 2019 ↩

8. New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Health Infrastructure Review ↩

9. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Cancer Today ↩

10. Diabetes New Zealand, Cost of type 2 diabetes trajectory is staggering but fixable ↩

11. Melanoma New Zealand, Facts and risk factors ↩

12. Heart Foundation homepage ↩

13. Stuff, Dying cancer patients say they are waiting too long for diagnosis, treatments ↩

14. Stuff, Life Support: Woman waiting 10 months for surgery suffers knee dislocation weekly ↩

15. Stuff, Auckland husband and wife diagnosed with terminal lung cancer within months of each other ↩

16. Cave Financial, Elective Surgery wait times halved! ↩