My Food Bag's Cecilia Robinson Courts Money For Health
Plus: Kieran McAnulty says "I Have Absolutely No Respect for Simeon Brown"
Summary:
Kieran McAnulty calls out National on healthcare lies and says Health Minister Simeon Brown is “dishonest and disingenuous” (video below)
McAnulty says negotiation with doctors is standard practice, but this level of disrespect is not, especially when we need and want our valued doctors.
National’s $20bn Health Investment Plan (“HIP”) is unfunded, non-detailed and omits critical hospitals like Nelson in the realistic future.
National has been advised on how to help Health, but its main focus still appears to be moving to private equity, for profit, healthcare - including telehealth.
Late last year, the West Coast’s after hours urgent care and GP access was replaced with telehealth without community consultation. Shane Reti could not say that it would be safe.
Christopher Luxon has been speaking up telehealth this year, and has met with telehealth business owners James and Cecilia Robinson (founders of My Food Bag).1
Cecilia Robsinson has penned many positive articles supportive of Christopher Luxon and Simeon Brown. She aims for her business to be the leading healthcare provider in NZ within the next decade and has been acquiring healthcare practices.
In a prior business, My Food Bag shares were sold at $1.85 to many Mum and Dad investors around the country. But nearly all of the original owners sold before the IPO, and profited handsomely. The Robinsons netted $30.3 million from an initial ~$60,000 of capital. My Food Bag shares are now valued at ~$0.13, a 97% haircut for investors who did not get out.
A $100mn telehealth government contract is out for tender, and Tend, Cecilia Robinson’s private healthcare business is considered a front runner.
Tend also appers to be pitching itself in the health data space, with Robinson praising Simeon Brown for solutions in this space, despite National cutting ~ half of the staff in data and digital, and upending years of investments and hundreds of in-progress projects.
What is your health worth, New Zealand? And who is running it, and for whom?
McAnulty on National’s Health Plans & Minister
Last week, Kieran McAnulty and Chris Bishop appeared on Breakfast to talk about the Government’s 10 year, $20bn Health Infrastructure Plan (“HIP”), a plan which pushed out headlines about the senior doctors’ strike the day before, and was essentially an announcement about unfunded, non-detailed2 and unconfirmed plans.
Labour’s DHB merger had given the National Party the opportunity to look at infrastructure nationally, and National used the opportunity to use it and re-take control of headlines.
In the segment, National’s #3 was there to represent the government, and Bishop echoed Simeon Brown’s criticisms:
“I strongly suggest that 99% of people watching this programme have not had a 12% pay rise this year or last year, and they're certainly not asking for one…
We're a reasonable government, but we cannot justify the type of salary increases that they are demanding.”
Ironic, considering National accepted a ~11% payrise last year which will see Chris Bishop and Simeon Brown on a $330,000 base salary - i.e. a 23% higher base salary than the top earning public hospital doctor.
The unfunded HIP announcement is also ironic when one realises that Labour had committed funds and firm plans for the builds of a future proof Nelson hospital ($1.1bn committed), Whangarei hospital ($759m committed) and Dunedin hospital ($1.7bn committed) - and National ripped each apart, claiming re-planning, re-funding and re-thinking were required on each - resulting in significant delays, protests, uncertainty, privatisation features, and scaled back plans.
Plus, as
said:Blaming doctors for not negotiating, when it is Health NZ that has made no offer since November
McAnulty’s reaction is a classic and worth a watch (8:00 minutes in if short on time). I admire the raw honesty, as well as the care factor.
Follow The Health Yellow Brick Road. It’s Paved With Gold
National’s HIP announcement felt similar to what happened last month, when a survey revealed well over 80% of healthcare professionals felt National’s budget cuts were hurting the health system and made it harder for Kiwis to access healthcare.
Early the next morning, Luxon and Simeon Brown made an' ‘important’ announcement - a “healthcare boost” to convert qualified Uber drivers in NZ to doctors through funding 100 overseas doctor positions.
That was also quite successful in pushing out the health survey headlines.
The PM also touted telehealth offerings - a service sold by the likes of My Food Bag Co-Founder Cecilia Robinson under one of her business endeavours,“Tend Health”.
PM Luxon excitedly told the Mike Hosking show that you can get your child a prescription at 11:30pm at night from the comfort of your own home.
Don’t get too excited: Telehealth has advantages as well as many shortcomings, including abuse, risks, requires robust frameworks, documentation and regulation to not risk patient care. Above all, it’s not a panacea for complex health requirements, including rural care in NZ.
National is smart in advancing their goals though.
They rolled out telehealth in the West Coast from October last year - replacing urgent care and after hours GP clinics - likely as a trial. Shane Reti couldn’t declare patients would be safe, but National went ahead anyway without even bothering to consult with the community.
How’s that for local control?
Today, West Coasters seeking primary healthcare after hours will need a referral from a telehealth provider before being able to see a doctor or nurse in person.
That’s a large funnel and income stream for telehealth.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing. An elderly 84 year old almost died amidst the under-resourcing and poor co-ordination of telehealth. Another West Coast patient is one of a number who was given wrong paperwork and spent hours trying to resolve a medical inquiry amidst a flare up. It could have been more serious.
Telehealth is not a panacea for the systematic issues National is well aware of.
Long Standing Health Problems - Novel Answers Under National
Before Director General of Health, Dr Diana Sarfati, was unceremoniously fired by Simeon Brown, after he replaced Dr Shane Reti, she outlined to Brown the multiple challenges and opportunities the government has to fix healthcare in NZ, and safeguard lives, access, and delivery.
This includes preventative measures such as reducing smoking (oops, the government repealed smoke free generation and omitted the $46bn of benefits for Kiwis, while Ministers & the PM repeated tobacco lobbying notes), reducing gambling (oops, the government just handed out gambling licenses to foreign operators which they know will siphon profits overseas & worsen gambling), and improving Māori health outcomes (oops, the government abolished the Māori Health Authority (MHA) and made changes to bowel cancer screening that will increase Māori deaths).
The report also speaks to the warnings from Treasury - NZ has an ageing and growing population - the health care budget will need to increase to account for it.
But Luxon simply isn’t bothered by such realities.
In February, he was excited about replacing doctors with nurse and nurse practitioners to deal with shortages.
Nurses and doctors alike recoiled.
No doubt telehealth is also one of National’s ‘big answers’ and hence why he is talking it up.
Cecilia and James Robinson’s NZ Health & Funding Courtship
Cecilia Robson is well credentialed. She has won many accolades including EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Kiwibank’s Innovator of the Year. Her husband and her appear to share a love for running businesses.
Robinson is available to hire as a keynote speaker with a tag line “It’s about finding a way to say yes.” Given Luxon’s proclaimed love of “yes”, her talk seems right up his alley.
Cecilia’s My Food Bag saw the Robinsons invest ~$60,000 of capital, and net ~$30.3 million from the public IPO. MFB was priced by the business at $1.85 and sold to many Mum and Dad investors, even as many of the owners sold.
The shares opened at $1.76 but consistently underperformed, and are now worth about $0.13. That’s a 93% haircut for those who didn’t get out in time.
Most of the money raised from the IPO went to the owners. By accounts from Gaynor, Nadia Lim and her husband made off with $15.4m, about half the amount of the Robinsons. The late Brian Gaynor wrote his opinion on this:
“The IPO was predominantly an exit vehicle for existing shareholders, rather than an equity raising for MFB, as only $54.8 million, or 16.2 per cent of the total amount raised went to the company.”
Robinson appears to be a serial entrepreneur and optimistic.
From where I sit, she has written many a sycophantic article about Luxon over the years - Exhibits A, B, C.
Running Tend with her husband, she’s stated publicly that she believes healthcare in NZ is not underfunded - which I believe would be music to Luxon’s ears.
NZ Doctor agrees and reports a $100mn telehealth government contract is up for grabs this year.
Tend is considered a front runner.
NZ Doctor points to this factor too:
Tend board member Lee Mathias was part of the team that memorably won the contract for Auckland’s community laboratory testing without being encumbered by owning a laboratory. Labtests was set up after the contract was won.
Tend, Robinson claims, wants:
“To make Kiwis the healthiest people in the world”
And for her business to become
“the largest healthcare provider (in NZ) within the next decade”
A lot of Robinson’s rhetoric sounds like the type of talk I’ve tracked from Lester Levy and Luxon over the last year.
For example, Robinson, not a health practitioner in any way, shape or form, claims on her website that
“healthcare is not entirely underfunded in New Zealand…..we’re [just] not good at generating productivity and outcomes from how we spend.”
Naturally, she posits, Tend has an answer.
An op-ed written by Cecilia Robinson in NZ Herald a few weeks ago, effuses praise on Simeon Brown for apparently committing to fixing decades of digital and health data health disaggregation, while putting her business at the centre of the supposed solution.
She wrote:
“The combination of SDHR and 24/7 telehealth is a powerful one. With remote providers able to instantly access medical histories, care becomes not only more efficient but also more equitable."
The initial investment is a strong start. Now, we must continue and commit to building a modern, connected, patient-centred health system.”
That’s sad and ironic, because this government has literally cut ~half of our data and digital teams, upending years of investments, over at least 136 projects, in a move that many say will cause patient deaths and has already resulted in a public health system data breach.
So could this be where they are going?
As New Zealanders, as Kiwis, we all have to ask - for ourselves, our families, and our children and theirs to come - who is running this show?
And what is their real motivation?
Remember: May 1 - Support your doctors and nurses, and share the stories that your news channel may not be covering in detail.
As one example, in Nelson, National’s $20bn HIP lacks any timeline for Nelson hospital - nor is the hospital even mentioned in the 2030 - 2034 timeframe.
This is despite Brown claiming it is “a single, long-term plan that lays out a clear pipeline for health infrastructure”.
Brown also stressed each component of the health infrastructure plan would require a detailed business case, but he had no qualms approving multi-billion dollar Welly tunnels to save 10 minutes of drive time to the airport without one.
National also shelved Labour’s plan to build a large new acute services building with 255 beds, including a new ED for Nelson.
Instead, National claimed it could fortify existing at-risk seismic buildings and develop a series of smaller buildings - despite the cost being pretty much the same.
Last year, it was reported that the rationale for the change was unclear - but to me, the rationale is as clear as day.
National does not want to set a precedent for large, new, modern infrastructure that is funded by public investment.
Unlike roads, which it happily announced $70bn of funding over 10 years for, without any qualms or concerns, health is uninteresting to National insofar as public ownership and investment is concerned.
Instead, its interest in running healthcare as a business and for profit - enriching private investors, directors and private hedge funds - and many National Party associated folks, appears apparent.
And in trying to appease Trump’s USA on defence, Luxon likewise said the $12bn defence budget, of which $9bn is new money, over 4 years was easy: “We can afford this.”
It gets tiresome to say, but National appear to be very overweight on gimmicks and PR, than the reality of governing responsibly and in the best interests of the populace over the long term.
Expect physical infrastructure work to commence in all regions over the next year, as well as “record investment” announcements, so they can pretend it’s not true for 2026’s election.
Nice work MT. Corrupt behaviour like this (what else can you call it?) now looks to be endemic in New Zealand and it’s insidious. Opaque lobbying and subterranean capitalist networking by high net worth individuals and groups like ATLAS and others now drive the connective tissue behind some pretty sketchy ‘deals’.
My Food Bag like MOA and other overhyped IPOs before them have been an abject failure for investors, many of them mum and dad investors. These epic failures have damaged trust, faith, and confidence in the market. And yet, these well-credentialed, ‘serial entrepreneurs’ are also highly skilled (and sufficiently well-capitalised) to be able to game the system.
And the New Zealand health system might just represent the game of the century or more accurately the sale of the century. And look at Luxon, Brown, Bishop, and the rest of the gang go. They’ve engaged warp drive on the spin machine and the firehose of misinformation and disinformation is now flooding the media and shaping the narrative. Bad actors, they’re sand in the gears of good, cruelty in the face of kindness, and they have no place in power or leadership or positions of privilege. Did I mention I’m furious? 🤬
You’d have to worry about the segmentation and privatisation of health care - sure you can bring in investment but those investors will require a return on their capital so it will be a focus on shareholder return cf the patient (consumer). The privatisation of the electricity sector reflects what will happen in health where investor return has been uppermost since Key’s (National) further step in privatisation a decade ago, investment in new generation has not occurred until recently and consumers have been price gouged! We must strongly advocate for a well funded public health system and push against this privatisation by stealth!