HSF submission to Parliament on the National Health Insurance Bill
4 December 2019
The Helen Suzman Foundation supports the underlying concept of universal health coverage.
However, in its submission to the Portfolio Committee on Health on the National Health Insurance Bill (“NHI” and “the Bill”), the HSF makes it clear that the Bill cannot be considered to be the product of a rational process, as a result of grossly inadequate research, planning and analysis, concerning the operational, administrative and financial aspects of the NHI. In addition, the lack of detail provided does not enable the current public consultation process to be legally valid, as it is impossible to comment on far-reaching draft legislation on the basis of too little information.
It is commonly accepted that Government has been unable to manage the public health sector in an acceptable manner. This is shown by the 2016/17 Annual Inspection Report by the Office of Health Standards Compliance, which found that out of 851 public sector health establishments, 62% were non-compliant with norms and standards for healthcare quality. At the same time, Government has failed to regulate the private health sector, as was found by the Health Market Inquiry in its report of 30 September 2019.
Against this background, Government now proposes to establish an NHI which it will itself control and manage, and which is intended to serve as the single purchaser of health care services from both the public and private sectors.