The bill for restructuring the health sector has hit $12 million and the new system is expected to cost the same to run in as the old one.
National health spokesman Wyatt Creech has accused Health Minister Annette King of hiding the details of the costs but she says she does
not have them.
A cabinet paper released to National under the Official Information Act estimates the costs of the changes this financial year to be $77 million and the savings to be $65 million. The new system, introducing district health boards and scrapping the Health Funding Authority, is expected to be in place by December.
Annette King said the $12 million included estimated redundancy costs of $4 million to $5 million from the merging of the authority into other agencies. She said the estimated net cost of restructuring this year was well under the $20 million contingency provided in this year's Budget.
Responding to Mr Creech's claim that the costs and savings figures were a stab in the dark, she said: "They are as much of a stab in the dark as anything they [National] did, except we have actually put out the decision to the public every step of the way."
