Latest publications / Health (3)

Good regulatory design : Assessing the regulatory options for the Pharmacy Council and Medicines Control

A report for the Pharmacy Council. Read more

Community pharmaceuticals : Expenditure trends

NZIER report to Medicines New Zealand. Read more

Pharmac economic analysis and savings claims

In the 2017 financial year, PHARMAC claims to have achieved $52 million in savings for New Zealand. PHARMAC further claims that between 2005 and 2016, it saved the District Health Boards nearly $6 billion. Read more

Sugar taxes : a review of the evidence

A report for the Ministry of Health. Read more

Making early intervention work - NZIER Insight 75

It's out with the old and in with the new. National's Social Investment approach is being replaced with a focus on Early Intervention. But the new government's focus should be on using evidence to support timely, if not always early, intervention. The health sector's experience with s … Read more

Is it finally time to reduce the number of district health boards? NZIER Insight 69

New Zealand has 20 district health boards (DHBs) for a population of less than 5 million. Because of a lack of transparency, we do not know the costs of administering DHBs. But prima facie evidence suggests it is time to consolidate DHBs and free up administrative resources to use for … Read more

Sitting down on the job - NZIER Insight 51

New Zealand is now one of the most obese countries in the world. The impact on our health comes with substantial economic costs. A range of factors are known to be important, with changes in diet being fingered as one of the culprits. Another less obvious factor is that the economic t … Read more

Private health insurance : an expanding role in the future of health care?

Health care costs have been rising over many decades, and will continue to do so according to Treasury projections. Health care spending is taking up more and more of government spending and revenue - this cannot continue forever. In the future, there will be pressures to increase rev … Read more

Commit to quit : control the devil in your future -NZIER Insight 35

Breaking an addiction is difficult: only about 3% of smokers who go cold turkey manage to successfully quit. New research by behavioural economists shows that getting people to make a financial bet on their success could lift those rates by over half again. Economists at NZIER think i … Read more

Fix flawed values of statistical life and life years to get better policy outcomes - NZIER Insight 16

When taxpayers' money is spent on health and safety measures in transport and healthcare services, the decisions made implicitly or explicitly place values on saving lives and casualties. In recent years there has been a move towards using standard measures of these values so that the … Read more

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