Key health policy

One of Labour’s key election promises appears set to be broken at the Budget, with the Health Minister refusing to confirm if cheaper GP visits are still on the table.

Under Labour’s policy New Zealanders with a community services card would be charged $8 to see the doctor – $10 cheaper than National’s proposed $18 fee. Charges for teens would reduce from $12 to $2, and under-13s would still see the doctor for free.

The average adult GP cost would go from $42 to $32. Both parties promised to bring in their policies from July 1, this year, but the costings of their respective policies differed greatly.

National said the cost of its policy would total $380 million over four years and it would be met within the 2018 Budget operating allowance. While Labour claimed it’s more wide-sweeping policy would cost $259m per year.

Now, the Government is fielding criticism that it overpromised on the campaign and one of the first casualties is likely to be the big-talking policy it announced in hurry, in an attempt to undercut National.

Health Minister David Clark said the Government would meet all its promises over the course of the term, but its GP policy would have to be phased in.

‘‘We are not going to release details of Budget announcements today, but I think the public understands that we do need to prioritise policies.

‘‘We’ve inherited an underfunded health system, and we need to do things one step at a time.

‘‘We will meet all our promises during the term of this Government, including reducing the cost of visiting the GP,’’ he said.

But National Party leader Simon Bridges said the backtrack on the GP policy was particularly galling.

‘‘Let’s be clear, this is a promise they made because of National – because we made it, and they wanted to match it,’’ he said.

‘‘This is definitely a case of Labour, NZ First and the Greens playing Santa prior to the elec-