Labour has announced it will make maternity scans free if it wins the next election. Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall confirmed at least two scans would be covered, according to RNZ.

The commitment is part of Labour's Medicard scheme — a broader package the party has been building since late 2025. Labour's release frames the pledge as a cost-of-living measure for pregnant New Zealanders, who currently pay out-of-pocket for routine antenatal ultrasounds.

Mediacard has accumulated several commitments. A November 2025 announcement introduced three free GP visits per year and free cervical screening, as detailed on the Labour Party website. Free maternity scans are the latest addition, announced on 16 June 2026.

Verrall positions the scans as a standard part of antenatal care that should not carry a user charge. Routine ultrasounds — typically the dating scan at around 12 weeks and the anatomy scan at around 20 weeks — are the two most common scans in publicly funded maternity care. The "at least two" wording suggests additional scans could be covered, though the policy has not yet specified whether that extends to third-trimester growth scans or Doppler studies, which are ordered selectively rather than across all pregnancies.

The approach Labour is taking here is worth noting. The party is bundling discrete health cost-reduction measures — GP visits, cervical screening, maternity scans — under a single brand, much as Pharmac operates as the funding body for medicines. That bundling makes costing and scrutiny easier for opponents and journalists, because the policy has a single front door. It also sharpens the contrast Labour is drawing with the current government's approach to primary and community health spending.

What is not yet specified publicly is the full fiscal cost. Labour has not released a complete costings document for Medicard as a whole, and the sequencing of announcements — GP visits in November 2025, maternity scans in June 2026 — suggests the policy is still being built rather than presented as a finished platform. This gap between announcement and costing is likely to come under pressure from the opposition and commentators as the election approaches.