Health NZ eyed charging for ED visits

A water main bursts in Aro Valley, Wellington, in 2021. Ongoing issues have led the Government to argue the WCC has not borrowed enough to pay for fixing its water networks. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty Images

Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, October 24:

1. Scoop of the day: Rachel Thomas reports for The Post-$$$ this morning from a spreadsheet obtained under the OIA showing Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ considered 59 options for cost savings earlier this year, including charging for ED visits, turning down air-conditioning, giving kidney failure patients less frequent dialysis and buying cheaper and less-healthy hospital food.

2. Deep-dive of the day: Chelsea Daniels reports in a NZ Herald podcast about whether more councils face Wellington-style intervention by the Government.

3. Solutions news item of the day: Norway’s tax revenues from its wealth tax hike in 2022 from 0.85% to 1.1% actually increased revenues significantly, rather than cut it, as the number of rich Norwegians leaving to Switzerland was smaller than first portrayed (James Medlock via X)

4. Number of the day: a Consumer NZ investigation published late yesterday has found Air NZ hiked its Trans-Tasman prices as much as 167% for a family of four over the school holidays. RNZ

5. Quote of the day: Lodge real estate agent Blair Pointon tells OneRoof about a surge in unconditional cash offers for homes from landlords, including not doing building reports. “They are taking a calculated risk and they know they will be blowing first-home buyers out of the water if they do that.”

6. Chart of the day: a US Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy distributional analysis of the Presidential candidates tax policies estimates Kamala Harris’ tax plan will deliver a 7% average tax cut to America’s poorest 20% and a 4.1% tax hike to America’s richest 1%, while Donald Trump’s plan delivers a 1.4% tax cut for the richest 1% and a 4.9% tax hike to the poorest 20%..

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing.)

Hunting for even bigger cuts, Health NZ eyed ED charges

Cuts floated in Feb included higher parking fees, less air-con, cheap food