“So let
me begin by asking, what sort of nation do we want to build?
Is it to
be a modern democratic society, embodying the essential notion of one rule for
all in a single nation state?
Or is it
the racially divided nation, with two sets of laws, and two standards of
citizenship, that the present Labour Government is moving us steadily towards?”
“In both
education and healthcare, government funding is now influenced not just by need
– as it should be – but also by the ethnicity of the recipient.” Don Brash
(leader of the National Party) said, during his Orewa speech in 2004.
This week’s
topic for my blog post is based on the
debate question: should there be measures to extend preventive health care for Maori, and should this be a top
priority in the New Zealand government.
In an article
named: Effects of self-reported racial
discrimination and deprivation on Māori health and inequalities in New Zealand:
cross-sectional study by R Harris, that based on their studies, Māori were more
likely to report experiences of self-reported racial discrimination in all
instances assessed and was almost ten times more likely to experience
discrimination in three or more settings than were Europeans. And in another
article published by the AJPH, said that there was a need to improve Maori
health. They gave two potential approaches to improving access to and quality
of health care for Maoris are (1) development of a system of Maori health care
provider services and (2) initiation of cultural safety education.
Improving access to care is crucial
to addressing health disparities, and increasing evidence suggests that Maoris and non-Maoris differ in
terms of access to primary and secondary health care services.
Now, Don Brash is clearly against
the measure to extend preventive health care
for Maori, based upon his Orewa speech in 2004. And considering he was once the
leader of the National Party, he believed it shouldn’t be a top priority
in New Zealand government. On the other hand, the two articles I spoke about
above, were based on surveys and studies and
as their studies showed that there should be something put in place for Maori’ health care.
References:
NATIONHOOD - Don Brash Speech
Orewa Rotary Club
Tuesday, 27 January 2004, 8:29 pm
Speech:
New Zealand National Party
Harris, R. (2006). Effects of
self-reported racial discrimination and deprivation on Maori health and
inequalities in New Zealand: a cross-sectional
study. The Lancet, 367(9527), 2005-2009.
Ellison-Loschmann. L., &
Pearce, N. (2011). Improving access to health care among New Zealand Maori population.
The American Journal of Public health
(AJPH).
3 comments:
I found your blog about preventive health care for Maori's interesting. But do you think that maybe health care should be equal for everyone and that race should not play a factor into the health care people receive. Another way I think could be an interesting way to view the topic, is that it could be done on household income or economical status. Where people who have less are provided the same, if not more?
Best way to start a heated debate: quote Don Brash. I think Sam has a point to some degree with extending extra preventive health care on the basis of lower socio-economic grounds but I think you can't disregard how unique Māori health issues are from even lower socio-economic pakeha health issues, sure there'd be a lot of crossover but there are also some issues which are uniquely Māori.
Thank you so much for both of your perspectives, it has allowed me to gain more knowledge and research the things I have lacked.
Cheers!
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