HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Thursday that National Health Insurance (NHI) was not “a pot of gold”, and urged caution over the role of business in what is meant to provide universal access across South Africa to healthcare.
The government is hoping NHI will help overcome inequities in access to health, but it has yet to clarify what form this will take, or how it will be paid for.
Eleven districts across each of South Africa’s nine provinces are piloting the introduction of NHI.
Dr Motsoaledi said when the white paper for NHI comes out, it will explicitly state that NHI is mainly for primary healthcare.
“Where we are losing the plot is when many believe NHI is a pot of gold, and each South African places himself strategically,” he said at the University of the Witwatersrand’s faculty of health sciences in Parktown, Johannesburg.
“Who told people that NHI is business? The white paper, when it comes out, will clearly say in black and white, that the heartbeat of NHI is going to be primary healthcare.”
Areas where the private sector could step in were in the provision of preventative products and measures such as condoms and vaccinations, Dr Motsoaledi said.
The minister came down hard on the Competition Commission, laying some of the blame for a history of escalating private healthcare prices in the country at the institution’s door. In 2003, the commission charged major players in the healthcare industry with collusion and price-fixing.
The decision has had the effect of escalating prices by allowing healthcare practitioners to individually price their services.
“Health is different, you don’t just apply the standards for bread… It is impossible for any patient to face a healthcare provider and negotiate a fee,” he said.
He also criticised the commission for acting against companies in the food and construction sectors but failing to bring down its “heavy fist” on the private healthcare sector. “I am not a neutral arbiter. If I am given the power to set prices, I will set them at the level of affordability.”
The commission is expected to begin a probe into the reasons for increases in private healthcare prices at the end of this year.
Source: www.bdlive.co.za
Last Updated on 9 July 2014 by HPCSA Corporate Affairs