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The Child Poverty Action Group is endorsing a report by parliament's health select committee that recommends increasing the amount spent on children's health.
The committee chaired by National MP and medical doctor Paul Hutchinson wants 90 percent of expectant mothers to see a doctor by their 10th week of pregnancy so vital clinical and preventative care can take place.
It said more than half the $14,5 billion annual health budget is spent on people in their last years of life, but the returns from investment in the very early years are far higher.
Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson Nikki Turner says the committee's call for a comprehensive action plan to reduce child poverty is critical to progress.
She says while the government supports vulnerable children, it has stopped short of taking a systematic approach that would require official child poverty measures.
Dr Turner says child poverty impacts hugely on the health outcomes and wellbeing of children as is evident in the high rates of a large range of preventable childhood illnesses in NZ including rheumatic fever, chronic lung disease and skin infections, and our appalling rates of child abuse.
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