Where is the National Health Insurance document?
The ANC has not met its own deadline for releasing the foundation document for its proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system by the end of June. The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on it to do so urgently, so there can be a proper debate about this highly important subject. We are concerned that the ANC is trying to leave as little room for discussion as possible, so that it can meet its own implementation deadlines without delays caused by consultation.
The ANC is presenting the NHI as the answer to the crisis in health care. On the evidence we have seen so far, it will be exactly the opposite, and will result in the creation of a massively expensive additional bureaucracy without addressing the real problems in health care. There are many other ways our health system could be improved, without completely rebuilding it, and it is important that all the options be debated before plans are implemented.
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 change and 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.
The Minister of Health, speaking in the President's state of the nation speech on 5th June, stated that a document would be released "within a few days' time". Dr Molefi Sefularo, the deputy minister of health, told a health conference last month 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."
If the delay in releasing this document is the result of internal disputes over the system, then these debates should be aired in public, so that all South Africans with an interest in this can know what is going on. If the delays are the result of the ineffectiveness and incapacity within the health department, then this is another reason not to implement the NHI, which would need a highly efficient bureaucracy to succeed.
Statement issued by Mike Waters MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of health, July 15 2009
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