Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says a spike in the number of children under 13 taking advantage of free GP appointments is to be expected and predicts it will settle down.
The policy, announced in Budget 2014, was launched in July this year.
In Queenstown yesterday, Dr Coleman said in just over a month 96% of practices in the Southern DHB had signed up. Nationally that figure was 97%.
Dr Coleman said 750,000 children could now access free GP visits and free prescriptions, but that had been capped at two visits per child per year.
At the Wakatipu Medical Centre in Frankton the minister met GPs and practice managing director Phil Markham to get feedback on how it was working.
''There's a lot of young, working families in this area - 90% of their clientele are the permanent residents.
''It [has] been really well received by those families [and] I'm really pleased to hear that.''
This week the Otago Daily Times reported the uptake since the policy had launched was ''exponentially'' high and practices would be forced to reinstate charges if funding ran out, and others might withdraw from the scheme.
However, Dr Coleman said the same thing happened a few years ago when the fees were removed from the under-6 age group, and the Government was ''really committed to making the policy work''.
''This [spike in under 13 presentations] is exactly the same ... some people have been waiting to take their children to the doctor, or haven't been able to previously afford it.
''Suddenly [there's] free consultations - they're going to take advantage of that. That's a good thing.''
He was aware of criticisms of the policy - particularly capping the free visits at two per child per annum - and concerns the $90 million over three years would run out.
''Whenever you do anything in health you're going to get a range of views ... in the end, it's a matter of looking at the numbers over time.
''It's going to be a good six months before we can tell what the long-term effects on demand will be.''
The policy had been shaped by the Ministry of Health which had, in conjunction with GPs, found the average number of doctor consultations for children in that age bracket was two per annum.
''There's science behind this, it was not just plucking something out of thin air. The Government is committed to supporting families in giving their children the best possible start in life.
''Removing the cost barrier will make a real difference to thousands of families.''
While in the resort yesterday Dr Coleman, who will return next week to visit Lakes District Hospital, also opened the New Zealand Scientific Meeting of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, being held at The Millennium.
