A large number of people are taking up health insurance in New Zealand. At present nearly 67% of the kiwis are insured compared to 61.7 % five years ago.

Peter Tynan, Chief Executive of Southern Cross Health Society agrees that available funding for public health in New Zealand will never meet the demands of people and that is the reason why a large number of people are taking up health insurance. There was a slide in the number of people taking health insurance because of global recession but still the number of health insurers touches 1.38 million.

Choosing the right insurance plan and cover depends on the person’s stage in life and general state of health.

Most of the people have taken up health insurance because it gives them freedom to choose their specialists and the timing of their appointments whereas in the public health system most of the patients are seen by junior doctor.

Tower Health and Life head of products Grant Hill says waiting for public health care is a slow process and there are some technologies which are not always offered by the public health care. These technologies mainly include less invasive robotic surgery and PET scan for evaluation of certain types of cancers".