Overhaul for sector as NHI implemented
THE GOVERNMENT wants to overhaul the health-care system, with the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) to be aggressively driven over the next few years.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced in his medium-term budget policy statement yesterday that the NHI Bill would be tabled before Cabinet soon.
This bill will create conditions to establish the NHI Fund. However, National Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane would not say how much would be allocated for the rollout of the NHI.
Mboweni said filling of 2 200 critical posts in the health-care sector was part of the plan in preparation for the roll-out.
Specialists will be among the 2 200 staff to be employed by the state.
“In preparation for the NHI, the Department of Health and National Treasury are working on a new payment mechanism, based on the number of patients served, for contracted general practitioners,” said the National Treasury in its budget policy statement.
The National Treasury said the NHI was a key policy to reform the healthcare sector.
“The NHI is the policy that will drive future reform in the health sector. NHI will reshape the purchase and delivery of health services to increase the quality of care and improve equity,” said the budget policy statement.
It added that despite having NHI pilot sites, the country was still facing serious problems in the health-care sector.
There are 10 pilot sites for the NHI across the country, and these have been operating since 2012.
The budget policy statement also stated that the NHI Bill was released for public comment and would be re-submitted to the Cabinet.
The government has set aside R350m to hire specialists and other critical health-care workers.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi was recently under fire in Parliament by opposition parties, who blamed him for the collapse of the health-care system.
They said the state of health services was almost non-existent in some parts of the country.
Other hospitals and health-care facilities have recently run out of antiretroviral drugs.
Motsoaledi has also in the past not given the budget for the full roll-out of the NHI, but has said it had been successfully implemented in other parts of the world, including Qatar and the UK.