Aims. To find out whether New Zealand household expenditures on health care services vary according to the income of the household. To compare expenditures on health care in 1987 with 1991. Methods. Information about household income and expenditure on health services was obtained from the Department of Statistics annual household expenditure and income surveys for the 1987 and 1991 financial years. Four categories of health expenditure were examined: general practitioner fees, dental fees, optician and optometrist fees, and spending on all health services combined. Results. Spending on health care is unequally distributed across income groups. In particular, the highest income households spend six times as much on dental care as the lowest income households. The difference between high and low income households in the amount spent on all health services was greater in 1991 than in 1987. In 1991 high income households spent 3.6 times as much on health services as low income households, compared with three times as much in 1987. Conclusions. High income households spend substantially more on health care than do low income households. Households appear to assign a higher priority to medical care than dental care, although this may reflect the lack of any state subsidy on adult dental care.
