Extract from Speech by DA Gauteng Health Spokesman Jack Bloom MPL
at Johannesburg Rotary Club lunch briefing at the Johannesburg Country Club on November 23 2010:

NHI WILL SQUEEZE OUT MEDICAL AIDS

Private medical aids will be squeezed out if the ANC's proposed National Health Insurance is implemented as planned.

This is because they will become less affordable as present tax deductions worth about R10 billion are phased out and higher income earners pay three to four percent of salary to a government-run NHI fund.

It will be a form of double taxation as taxpayers who opt for private care will get no benefit from what they pay for the public health system.

This is inherently unfair. In the German health system, for instance, higher income earners who opt out of the public health system are not required to pay the 7% payroll tax as well.

The irony is that private health suppliers could flourish under the NHI as government will use their services for public patients. They will be heavily regulated, however, which will constrain their growth and efficiency.

The logic of the NHI is to constrain the private health sector by redirecting private funding to government control.

A major problem is that we simply don't have the human resources to run a health system that will provide to everyone the quality health care presently provided in the private sector.

There are 12 000 vacancies for doctors and 42 000 vacancies for nurses in our public hospitals. The real shortage is probably about double this number.

The cost of the proposed system will need higher tax that will constrain economic growth.

My view is that jobs are more important for general health improvement as people will then be able to afford better nutrition, sanitation and shelter.

Improving medical treatment at the expense of jobs will therefore be counter-productive in raising general health.

Government is doing a poor job running hospitals, so what confidence can we have that it will run a complex national health scheme any better?

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi should concentrate on improving the management of public hospitals rather than hobbling a private health sector that is a major asset for our country.

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