How to design and fund a sucacessful health system: an expert’s view

Des Gorman, a University of Auckland Emeritus Professor of Medicine, says public health funding needs to move to a pay-it-forward, insurance-based model if it is to become sustainable, affordable and fair.

Gorman, a former director of ACC, cites the ACC model as an example, where the organisation was at one point staring at a $30 billion liability under the pay-as-you-go system. Moving to a fully forward-funded model has enabled ACC to record a $10b surplus in the 2020/21 year, with $50.3b in net investment assets.

“So, it is possible to make the shift where we contribute over our lifetime,” he says. “We need to make a basic shift in revenue generation for health. That’s what sophisticate western countries [Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands] are doing.”

Gorman was speaking as part of a panel discussion about the future of our health system, hosted by the Financial Services Council.