The Select Committee on Health and Social Services welcomed the responses it received from the Department of Health on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill. The Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, told the committee that provincial legislatures had conducted 60 public hearings on the Bill in all nine provinces between 28 July and 30 October 2023.
Many diverse organisations made meaningful submissions on the Bill and raised mostly the same issues they has previously presented to the Portfolio Committee on Health, he explained.
The department’s Deputy Director-General, Dr Nicholas Crisp, said most of the inputs concerned the lack of clarity about the Bill’s sources of income. Other concerns related to the lack of clarity about potential tax increases, objections to the introduction of personal tax that would burden already over-burdened taxpayers and objections about potential increases in value-added tax.
Dr Crisp said the position of the department stated in Clause 49 (2)(a) of the Bill provides for sources of funding, including the additional sources that will be mobilised. South Africa currently spends 8.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on health with 4.2% in the public sector serving more than 85% of the population and 4.3% in the private sector that serves less than 15% of the population. The 8.5% of GDP spending is way above what other countries of similar economic development spend on health care.
Clause 49 also provides a framework that outlines the options the government must pursue in raising revenue for the NHI Fund using a mandatory pre-payment system.
Committee Chairperson Mr Zoyisile Njadu noted with concern that some of the submissions were not included in the responses. The committee was of the view that all submissions should be considered, even those that were submitted late. It agreed with the department to schedule another meeting in which the department will present its responses on the submissions that were not included because they missed the closing deadline.
Yoliswa Landu
3 November 2023
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