Compared to many countries, New Zealand has a very good public health system.

If You’ll have to pay for routine visits to the doctor or dentist, but there are subsidies for children and for people on lower incomes. The public health system provides for more expensive services such as hospital treatment.

New Zealand has a highly developed and excellent public health system. As a consequence most people rely on the state system to satisfy their health needs. Also funded from taxes a visit to a hospital will be "free". With hospitals in all the major cities the availability to the general population is generally very good.

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The system is by and large well funded and an individual entering a public hospital here will receive a standard of care many countries only dream of. The Government of the day is now spending more of its income on health on a per capita basis than at any time in our history.

However many hospitals are experiencing increasing waiting lists for non life threatening surgery and as a consequence people are being attracted to private medical insurance to cover themselves in the event the local hospital has a waiting list. While private medical insurance is voluntary - and there is no compulsory public medical insurance scheme - close to 50% of New Zealanders now have private medical insurance.

Children under six visit for free and remaining children are still heavily subsidised by the state. The amount paid for a visit to the Doctor depends on the area and region.

Drugs and prescriptions are also heavily subsidized, with drugs available to all at reasonable cost.

All maternity care (from the point of positive pregnancy test) to the birth of the child is 100% paid for by the state. Specialists if required or preferred are paid for by the patient.

New Zealanders will tend to visit their own General Practitioner or Specialist who is in Private Practice for non-urgent health problems. In the event of an emergency they will be taken care of in the public hospitals often under the care of a private sector specialist.

For new arrivals as soon as a residence permit is granted you will be afforded the same care and access to these health services as are New Zealand citizens and residents.

Publicly funded health services include:

· Free public hospital treatment.

· Free treatment at public hospital 24-hour accident and emergency (A&E) clinics.

· Subsidies on prescription items.

· Subsidised fees for visits by family members to general practitioners (GPs).

· Subsidised fees for visits to physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths when referred by a GP.

· Free or subsidised health care for those suffering from acute or chronic medical conditions.

· No charge for most laboratory tests and x-rays, except at privately operated clinics.

· No charge for health care during pregnancy and childbirth, unless provided by the private medical sector.

· No charge for GP referrals to a public hospital for treatment.

· Free prescription medicines for all public hospital patients.

· Subsidies for children under six for visits to the doctor and for prescriptions.

· Free basic dental care for all school children.

· Free breast screening for women aged between 50 and 64.

Your first point of contact with the health system will probably be your GP (General Practitioner), also known as your family doctor. New Zealand has about 3,200 GPs. These are located in almost every city, suburb and town throughout the country. Local GPs are listed in The Telephone Book.