The Long Term Prospects for Health Spending

Dr Brian Easton, Economic and Social Trust on New Zealand

ABSTRACT: Last year the Treasury released its long term fiscal projections which look up to 40 years out. Although initially the big concern was demographic change and New Zealand superannuation, it soon became clear that a major issue was public sector health spending. Brian, who was on the group advising the Treasury on the projections, will explain the population and health projections and outline what they might mean for public policy. The projections are at https://www.treasury.govt.nz/government/longterm/fiscalposition/2013

BIO: Dr Brian Easton has had a long involvement in health economics and in economic forecasting (and has made occasional forays into demographic analysis). He is currently writing a history of New Zealand from an economic perspective .which includes an account of the history of the health system and which is heavily dependent on the analysis of population change (especially where the economic data are deficient). Brian is Research Associate of the National Institute for Demographic and Economic Analysis and an Honorary Fellow of the Wellington School of Medicine of the University of Otago. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a Chartered Statistician, and a Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and a Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Economic Association.

When: Thursday 27th March 2014, 1.10. – 2.00 pm

Where: I.1.05 For more information please contact Professor Jacques Poot (jpoot@waikato.ac.nz)

Seminar website https://www.waikato.ac.nz/nidea/events