The government in Niue says it is considering taking out insurance for all residents as a result of funding for emergency medical evacuations being cut.
The Niue Health department says at least one medivac occurs a year, at a cost of about 95 thousand US dollars per flight.
Niue's premier, Toke Talagi, has assured all residents that the government has the resources to cover any medivacs.
He says as well as exploring health partnerships with Samoa and Tonga, the government is also looking into getting a blanket insurance policy for all Niue residents.
Mr Talagi says the former director of health was already in the process of preparing a report on this.
"The costs we were looking at total insurance was just over 100 thousand dollars, but we really need to determine what that actually means and whether it means the sort of things that we're talking about, including medivacs, costs and covers and so on. I just want to leave the minister and the current director and the current minister to review what has been done and determine a pathway forward for us and conclude this as quickly as possible."
Toke Talagi.
