Committee extends NHI submissions date

PARLIAMENT has announced a seven-week extension to the closing date for written submissions on the controversial National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill to November 29.

Initially, written submissions, which opened at the beginning of last month, were set to close on Friday, October 11.

“The portfolio committee on health has, over the past weeks, received requests from stakeholders and individuals appealing for the extension of the closing date for written submissions on the NHI Bill,” said a statement issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services yesterday.

Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, the chairperson of the committee, said: “We have been considering the requests from relevant stakeholders who play an important role in the delivery of healthcare in the country. Having considered these requests, we have actually agreed to extend the closing date for written submissions to November 29, 2019.”

He said stakeholders proposed mid-November as the closing date for written submissions.

Dhlomo said the new closing date for written submissions did not affect the start of the public hearings that were scheduled to begin on October 25, in Mpumalanga Province.

Detractors warned that the NHI would see taxes rise, extend inefficiencies and poor services presently experienced at state medical facilities to private institutions and destroy private health sector.

However, the government has insisted that the NHI would ensure all South Africans have access to “universal healthcare”.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which wrote to the committee to ask for an extension, said it was pleased that the committee agreed to the request.

In his letter to the committee, Outa’s executive director for the national division, Dr Heinrich Volmink, emphasised the importance of public participation on a bill of this magnitude and technical nature.

“As Outa, we believe that Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is essential for the realisation of Section 27 of our Constitution. Moreover, UHC is a key objective of Sustainable Development Goal 3, and our country is in an important position to help provide significant progress in this direction.”

Written submissions must be directed to Vuyokazi Majalamba and be addressed to the Portfolio Committee on Health 3rd floor, 90 Plein Street, Cape Town 8000, emailed to vmajalamba@parliament.gov.za or faxed to 086 694 3279.

In addition to the written comments, the committee urged those who make submissions to indicate if they would be interested in making a verbal presentation.

Copies of the bill can be obtained at www. parliament.gov.za

| AP TREASURE A PORTRAIT of humanist poet Michele Marrulo by artist Sandro Botticelli hangs at Trinity Fine Arts’ Frieze Masters booth in London, UK. It is being offered for sale this week during the annual London Frieze Masters Fair for €30 million (R501m). But a Spanish law on cultural treasures might create difficulties for a foreign buyer seeking to bring the treasure home. The gallery owner and Italian art dealer Carlo Orsi said the painting’s strength is in its expression and the significance of the person it portrays: a well-known Latin poet of the Medici court and adventurer of the Renaissance.