Showing posts with label NHI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NHI. Show all posts

Monday, August 3, 2009

Health unit hammers out details of NHI

The ANC's proposed national health insurance (NHI) scheme will become a reality this week as a Health Department unit starts working on the details of the scheme.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Sunday that the first members of a unit of specialists to work on the plan were due to be appointed by the health department this week.

Motsoaledi said the NHI unit would comprise government officials working in the area of health economics and would include experts and advisors from academic and research institutions. He said he expected the government team members to start work this week, while external experts still had to be appointed.

Approved by the ruling party's national executive committee in July, the proposals for the health insurance scheme would first be discussed by the cabinet before being released for public discussion, Motsoaledi said.

Source: IoL

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

SA healthcare model “primitive” — Minister

South Africa's model of healthcare financing is "primitive" and will be abandoned, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said on Tuesday.

"The present system of healthcare financing can no longer be allowed to go on, because it is simply unsustainable," Motsoaledi said during his budget vote speech in Parliament.

He said of the 8,5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) that was spent on healthcare, only 3,5% of the GDP catered for 84% of the population's healthcare. The other 5% catered for just 14% of the population or seven-million people.

"Nowhere in the civilised world can you find that state of affairs," he said.

"The present model of healthcare financing is just outright primitive and we are going to abandon it."

Motsoaledi said critics of the government's proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) were "hard at work" to prove that the government was going to overburden the rich.

"NHI is a system of universal health coverage where every citizen is covered by healthcare insurance, rich or poor," he said.

Source: Polity

Monday, June 8, 2009

NHI will cost R100bn more

In a speech on Friday, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan made no reference to the proposal, but mentioned that a task team has been set up at the National Treasury to "explore models for broadening public-private partnerships in the health sector".

A national health insurance scheme could cost the taxpayer an additional R100 billion a year in taxes - an amount equal to about 9 percent of general household spending.

Source: IoL