ABSTRACT
Introduction In the 1980s, when the first Nuffield The Public-Private Mix book was published, New Zealand's healthcare system was predominantly tax financed and adminis tered mainly by elected area boards, funded via a weighted population formula. Public hospital services were free, but user charges applied to primary healthcare. A parallel privately financed sector provided supplementary access to health services, chiefly elective surgery, for those willing to pay for private health insurance or out-of-pocket.
