ABSTRACT
It is now widely recognized that New Zealand's recent and ongoing health reforms have been possibly the most radical of any OECD country. Set within the context of major reform of the state sector generally, health reforms proposed in 1991 and implemented in 1993 were based on the concept of an internal market and managed competition, similar to developments in the United Kingdom and the United States. There were strong expectations by government that marketstyle reforms would improve access and increase efficiency, especially in the hospital-based sector.
