Healthcare

Healthcare in New Zealand

You can be reassured that your health is in good hands when you come to New Zealand. That’s because New Zealand’s health care system is widely regarded as one of the best in the OECD countries (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

Under the public system, essential heath care is provided free to all residents. This means that while some routine services, such as visits to doctors and dentists have to be paid for, more costly services, such as hospital treatment are available free to all residents.

Publicly funded health services include:

Free public hospital treatment
Free 24-hour accident and emergency treatment at public hospital clinics
Subsidies on medicines and prescription items
Subsidised fees for visits to General Practitioners (GPs)
Subsidised fees for specialist care
Free or subsidised health care for those suffering acute or chronic medical conditions
Free x-rays and most laboratory tests, except at privately operated clinics
No charge for health care during pregnancy and childbirth unless you prefer to use the private sector
Free breast screening for women between 45 and 69
Subsidies for children under six for visits to the GP and for prescriptions
Government-funded accident compensation (ACC), which applies to everyone, including visitors to the country.

In addition to the public health system you can also choose private health care to supplement the public system.

Who is eligible for public health care

New Zealand’s public healthcare system is available to all New Zealand citizens and residents, and in some other cases.

You will be eligible:

once you achieve residency or citizenship OR
if you hold a work permit for 2+ years under the Work to Residence policy OR
if you are an Australian citizen or permanent resident and intend to live in New Zealand for at least two years OR
if you are under 18 and your parent or guardian qualifies OR
if you are a student on a Commonwealth Scholarship.

If you do not fall into a category listed above, you may need to pay for your own healthcare and it would be advisable to take out medical insurance until you are eligible for the public health care.

More details about who is eligible are available at: www.moh.govt.nz/eligibility

More information

For more information about healthcare in New Zealand see our detailed pages on:

Where to find health services

New Zealand has 40 public hospitals and around 3,200 GPs (General Practitioners, also known as your family doctor). There are also hundreds of specialists and private health services throughout the country.

Details of the health services in every area are listed in the local telephone directory, known as the White Pages. Some specialty services are also listed in the Yellow Pages. You can access this information online at www.yellow.co.nz.

Or for more information on New Zealand’s health services and more details of who is eligible, see the Ministry of Health at www.moh.govt.nz.