Children under 13 will receive free doctors visits and prescription medicines beginning today.
The initiative announced in last year’s Budget has finally come into effect.
The Minister of Māori Development says, “This is an awesome gain for whānau and shows the benefit of having the Māori Party as a support partner in Government, as it was the Māori Party that secured this gain in Budget 2014,”
According to a statement issued by the Māori Party it is estimated that over 400,000 children will benefit from these policies including 189,000 tamariki Māori.
Māori Party Co-leader Marama Fox says, “Being able to take tamariki to the doctor for free and have the cost of medicines covered will take some of the stress off whānau. We’d like to see this policy extended to all tamariki and taiohi under the age of 18,, but it’s a significant improvement on what we have had previously”.