11336 (2024). Hon Barbara Edmonds to the Minister of Finance

11336 (2024). Hon Barbara Edmonds to the Minister of Finance: Has the Treasury model for projecting future health spending been revised since Budget 2023, and if so, how?

Hon Nicola Willis: Health cost pressure funding will be announced on Budget Day and the underpinning advice will be subject to the Budget 2024 proactive release shortly after. Decisions on health cost pressures in Budget 2024 have been informed by both: • a top-down funding model that was used to set cost pressure planning parameters for Health New Zealand in March 2023. The planning parameters factored in demographic and inflation (including wage inflation) assumptions. The planning parameters were disclosed in Treasury’s 2023 Economic and Fiscal Updates. • bottom-up planning and budgeting by Health New Zealand. The Treasury produces a Long-term Fiscal Statement every four years. This statement projects future spending in different sectors including health. The most recent Long-term Fiscal Statement was published in 2021 and can be found on Treasury’s website: He Tirohanga Mokopuna (2021).