Ethnic Classification in the New Zealand Health Care System

Abstract

The ethnic or "racial" classification of Maori and non-Maori is

Racial Inequities in Cardiovascular Disease in New Zealand

“…Within New Zealand and internationally, racism is recognised as an important determinant of health [10]. Rata and Zubaran warn that it is low socioeconomic status that is the cause of Māori health disadvantages not ethnicity [21]. They argue that ethnic labelling itself may contribute to negative stereotypes that produce racism, which in turn feed the cycles of discrimination for ethnic minority groups.…”

“…They argue that ethnic labelling itself may contribute to negative stereotypes that produce racism, which in turn feed the cycles of discrimination for ethnic minority groups. They suggest that public healthcare policies based on ethnic distinctions should be abandoned in favour of "a more tenable approach that recognizes a series of other causal factors in social disadvantage" [21]. As the current strategies are failing Māori, new initiatives addressing social disadvantage and poverty are urgently needed to redress the inequities in healthcare.…”

“…However, after 176 years it is unhelpful to ascribe current inequities to intergenerational psychological trauma caused by the impact of a cataclysmic event such as colonisation rhetoric such as: "If Māori are getting less, non-Māori are getting more" [21,26,27]. If as Jackson suggests, Māori health needs arise as a consequence of their indigenous rights being breached, will Māori health improve with the reinstatement of such rights?…”

Dignity, Health, and Membership: Who Counts as One of Us?

“…Whether this distinction is between zygotes and embryos, human organisms and persons (Alvargonzalez, 2016;McGee, 2016;Wilkins, 2016), Maori and non-Maori [a distinction discussed in Rata and Zubaran (2016)], or the so-called "normal" and "disabled" (Beaudry, 2016), an explanation must be given. 6 This usually involves an argument about a feature or set of features that the privileged beings have in common.…”