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AS IT HAPPENED | #NHIBill: National Treasury estimated that NHI will cost around R256bn

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Department of Health (Image via Twitter)
Department of Health (Image via Twitter)
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08 Aug 2019

The briefing concludes.

08 Aug 2019

Mkhize: "For NHI, corruption will be a threat and therefore we are armed as it starts, to make sure that we deal with those situations, then we don't run into the problem as though we didn't anticipate [it]. It's an environment that we can see, it's an environment the whole country is trying to resolve, it's an environment that President Ramaphosa has also committed to fighting."

Mkhize says with all the commissions and inquiries going on, we will be all the wiser at the end of it all. But at the end of the day we must be able to prevent, to detect early and to act against corruption.

08 Aug 2019

Questions are now being fielded, as Minister Mkhize needs to leave the briefing at 11:30 for another engagement.

08 Aug 2019

READ IN FULL - National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill: 

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08 Aug 2019

Another "Friends of the NHI" representative, speaking on behalf of Discovery Health CEO Dr Johnathan Broomberg: "We welcome the publication of the NHI bill, as this provides more clarity on the implementation of the policy objective of universal health coverage, and the establishment of the NHI fund. We support the drive towards ensuring that all South Africans have access to quality health services based on need, rather than affordability and we welcome the minister's collaborative approach in working towards this objective."

"The NHI fund will be an important enabler for harnessing private sector collaboration."

08 Aug 2019

READ/DOWNLOAD THE NHI BILL HERE

08 Aug 2019

A representative of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Task Group, which is an umbrella constituent organisation representing all five pharmaceutical industry associations, is next at the podium as one of the "Friends of the NHI". 

"The PTG and the South African pharmaceutical industry at large, looks forward to partnering with government, more specifically the national Department of Health in ensuring sustainable business models that are able to appropriately support government's efforts at ensuring secure, affordable and accessible medicine supply, as a viable and affordable NHI system unfolds..."

08 Aug 2019

RELATED - Five things you need to know about the new National Health Insurance Bill

08 Aug 2019

'Govt's NHI will kill the private health sector', warns DA

The DA, which strongly opposes the government's National Health Insurance (NHI) plan, believes it can provide universal health care without pooling private and public funds as well as creating another state-owned enterprise (SOE).

"The global trend in public health is to move toward providing universal health care. It is crucial that South Africa follows suit. With an accumulative budget of more than R222bn across all provincial departments and its entities, this is a possibility for our country, but the devil is in the detail," said DA MP and spokesperson on health Siviwe Gwarube in July.

Gwarube said South Africa's current two-tier health care system was unsustainable and had over the past two-and-a-half decades created an environment of insiders and outsiders - with 16% of South Africans having health care coverage and over 80% "relying on the crumbling public health system".

READ MORE

08 Aug 2019

There are many questions around the NHI bill. For instance, will you be able to have a comprehensive medical aid? 

The answer is no. Once the NHI has been fully implemented, your medical scheme will not be allowed to cover any health services that the NHI offers. You will have to use the NHI for those services. Your medical aid will only be able to provide you with complimentary cover, in other words, services that the NHI doesn’t cover. By when will your medical aid, in its current form, disappear? According to the Bill, the NHI Fund needs to be up and running by 2026 through a system of "mandatory prepayment".Many experts, however, argue that the NHI will take much longer to take off.  

FIND OUT MORE HERE
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