Motsoaledi to present White Paper on affordable health care to cabinet

His ministry had kept within the schedule of 14 years to roll out the National Health Insurance

THE White Paper on the National Health Insurance (NHI) is complete, but Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi still needs to present it to the cabinet before making it public.

“We have given it to Treasury (for a financing model) and at the next cabinet space I have, I will present it.

“In dealing with the issues going forward, what I can say now is that technology, different business models and a change in behaviour in public health facilities will all be central to changing public health care in South Africa,” said Motsoaledi, who was speaking at the SA Medical Association’s conference in Sandton at the weekend.

The White Paper is set to map out how the NHI will be introduced.

Motsoaledi said that primary health care would be the foundation and “heartbeat” of the country’s health system.

Last month, Motsoaledi told parliament that his ministry had kept within the schedule of 14 years to roll out the NHI and that the first phase where at least 10 pilot sites across the country were set up had been done.

He said a lot of work was still happening behind the scenes on the concept of the “ideal clinic” which will have 134 elements – such as a fully efficient human resources team, proper infrastructure among others.

Motsoaledi said he would be in New York this week to attend the UN General Assembly, where 17 new goals – three of which in health – would be set out.

Technical

specialist

on health economics for the NHI in the national Department of Health, Dr Aquina Thulare, said its purpose was to ensure affordable and equitable medical care in the country for everyone, not just to those who could afford it.

“South Africa’s healthcare system is highly fragmented and unequal; in terms of human resources, the medical profession is highly skewed towards the private sector.

“More than 60 percent of the poorest in South Africa have the highest need for health care, but derive the least from the health system,” Thulare said.

Thulare said the National Development Plan was informing the implementation of NHI that sought to have an accessible health-care system for everyone in South Africa by 2030. Motsoaledi also announced that he would be making the findings of a task team headed by Professor Bongani Mayosi, who conducted a probe into the workings at the Health Professions Council of South Africa, public within two weeks.