Government is showing its contempt for public debate by not releasing NHI document
It is now almost two months since the ANC promised to make its discussion document on National Health Insurance (NHI) public. The DA supports the call today by The Lancet, a respected medical journal, for the government to provide more information on its NHI proposals (see here). The longer it delays releasing this document, the more it shows its contempt for public debate and the more it risks putting in place a plan that will be disastrous for health care.
This year, The Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi stated that a document would be released "within a few days' time". The Deputy Minister of Health Molefi Sefularo told a health conference in June that base documents on NHI would be released by the end of June, and he promised that the plan "will not be sprung on you by surprise."
Yet almost two months later there is still no document available. This means that the ANC is continuing to work on the most fundamental transformation of health since 1994 in secret, and the people who are going to run this system, use it and will have to pay for it have been completely excluded.
This is not only fundamentally undemocratic, but it means that the only opinions that are being considered are from those people who have designed the system, who support it and will not necessarily have to pay for it. This means that fundamental flaws are being swept under the carpet, and alternatives that might be more practical and cost-effective are being ignored.
The ANC's election manifesto promises to introduce an NHI "over the next five years". This is a short time for such a fundamental and complex system to be instituted. The only way the ANC is likely to be able to meet this target is by reducing the amount of time spent on consultation, and by making its proposals completely inflexible so that changes (even if they improve the plans) do not cause delays.
Statement issued by Mike Waters, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of health, August 25 2009
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