Johannesburg - The white paper on the National Health Insurance (NHI) is complete but Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi needs to present it to the cabinet before making it public.
“We have given it to the Treasury (for a financing model) and at the next cabinet space I have, I will present it. Technology, different business models and a change in behaviour in public health facilities will all be central to changing public healthcare in South Africa,” said Motsoaledi.
He was speaking at the South African Medical Association’s conference at the Sandton Convention Centre at the weekend.
The white paper is set to map out how the NHI will be introduced.
Motsoaledi said primary healthcare would be the foundation and “heartbeat” of the country’s health system.
Last month, he told Parliament that his ministry had kept within the 14-year schedule to roll out the NHI and that the first phase – where at least 10 pilot sites across the country were set up – had been done.
He said a lot of work was taking place behind the scenes on the concept of the ideal clinic, which would have 134 elements such as an efficient human resources team and proper infrastructure.
Motsoaledi said he would be in New York this week to attend the UN General Assembly, where 17 new goals – three of them on health – would be set.
The technical specialist on health economics for the NHI in the national Department of Health, Dr Aquina Thulare, said the NHI’s purpose was to ensure affordable and equitable medical care was available to everyone in South Africa and not just to citizens who could afford it.
“South Africa’s healthcare system is highly fragmented and unequal; in terms of human resources, the medical profession is highly skewed towards the private sector. More than 60 percent of the poorest in South Africa have the highest need for healthcare but derive the least from the health system.”
Thulare said the National Development Plan was informing the implementation of the NHI, which sought to have an accessible healthcare system for everyone in South Africa by 2030.
Motsoaledi also announced he would be making the findings of a task team – headed by Professor Bongani Mayosi, who conducted a probe into the workings at the Health Professions Council of South Africa – public within two weeks.
The Star