Dear Ministry of Health,

My request is in relation to the currently ongoing hearsays regarding "Immigrant parents" clogging up the hospitals where people have made a perception that any elderly who lands onto New Zealand Airport directly takes a taxi to the Hospital and stays there for rest of their life. To order to prove whether these are just assumptions or a fact, I would like request 10 years data from Ministry of Health for a number of categories which are as follow:

1. Number of Foreign born NZ residents over the age of 60 that arrived/settled in New Zealand in last 10 years (from 2009 or after) using considerable publicly funded health services in "Hospitals" (I won't expect normal GP visits in this)

2. Average cost to New Zealand taxpayers per year per person for above mentioned people i.e Foreign born elders over the age of 60 that arrived to NZ in or after 2009)

3. Number of Foreign born NZ Visitors on "Visitor visa" over the age of 60 who paid for medical services in NZ hospitals in last 10 years (Obviously anyone on a Visitors Visa doesn't qualify for publicly funded healthcare)

4. Average money spent in New Zealand on health services per year per person for last 10 years by above people i.e Foreign born elders over the age of 60 who are in NZ on a visitor visa.

5. Number of Foreign born NZ residents over the age of 60 that arrived/settled in New Zealand in last 10 years (from 2009 or after) undergone a "major medical treatment" in New Zealand which was publicly funded. I would consider a medical treatment major that would cost NZ Taxpayers over $41,000 which is the current threshold set by Immigration New Zealand for the purpose of a medical waiver.

Yours faithfully,

G Sharma

Dear Ministry of Health,

Thank you for your response. You mentioned that "Ministry of Health" and no other government agency would have this data, but I am baffled to know this because if no agency has this data available then how come politicians, media and other influential entities are claiming that migrant parents are choking up publicly funded Health resources?

Do you believe there is some sort of channel where we can obtain this data or its not possible at all?

Yours faithfully,

G Sharma