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GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, AND LAW
Improving Access to Health Care Among New Zealand’s
Maori Population
| Lis Ellison-Loschmann, PhD, and Neil Pearce, PhD, DSc
The health status of indigenous peoples worldwide varies
according to their unique historical, political, and social circumstances. Disparities in health
between Maoris and non-Maoris
have been evident for all of the
colonial history of New Zealand.
Explanations for these differences involve a complex mix of
components associated with socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, availability of health care,
and discrimination.
Improving access to care is
critical to addressing health
disparities, and increasing evidence suggests that Maoris
and non-Maoris differ in terms
of access to primary and secondary health care services.
We use 2 approaches to health
service development to demonstrate how Maori-led initiatives are seeking to improve
access to and quality of health
care for Maoris. (Am J Public
Health. 2006;96:612–617. doi:
10.2105/AJPH.2005.070680)
THE HEALTH CIRCUMSTANCES
of indigenous peoples vary according to the unique historical,
political, and social characteristics of their particular environments, as well as their interactions with the nonindigenous
populations of the countries in
which they reside. An example is
the Maoris, the indigenous people of New Zealand. We focused
on the health realities of this
group, in particular the effects on
Maori health of health care services designed according to the
values and social processes of
non-Maoris.1
Significant differences in life
expectancy exist between
Maoris and non-Maoris in New
Zealand, but the role of health
care in creating or maintaining
these differences has been recognized and researched only recently. An analysis of Maori
health in the context of New
Zealand’s colonial history may
suggest possible explanations for
inequalities in health between
Maoris and non-Maoris, highlighting the role of access to
health care. Two potential approaches to...