Implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme would mean a total reengineering of the public health care service, according to Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
Presenting his budget vote speech before Parliament on Tuesday, Motsoaledi said: “We are working around the clock everyday around this issue of NHI. The problem is that many believe that NHI is just the release of a document. For us in health, we know that it also involves an extensive preparation of the healthcare system while at the same time preparing a policy document.”
Motsoaledi said there were two different groups of people arguing for and against the implementation of the NHI. “Those who correctly and legitimately hope that the NHI will bring relief in their everyday hardships as far as their healthcare is concerned. And they are of course very right. However, the other group eagerly waiting are those consumed by self-interest and greed that will shame even the devil,” he said.
Motsoaledi said the latter group were waiting for any development and vowed to do anything in their power to stop the NHI dead in its tracks.
“To both groups, the legitimate expectation group and the greedy lot, I am appealing for their patience,” he said.
In his speech, Motsoaledi said that under the present healthcare system, whether public or private, no national health insurance could ever survive.
“I know that, at face value, problems in the health system are said to be existing only in the public sector and the private sector must be left alone to some wayward phenomena called market forces, even though these market forces dismally failed to stop or more appropriately caused the most recent global economic collapse,” he said.
Motsoaledi said that he defined the present healthcare system by four clearly identified negatives: it is unsustainable; it is very destructive; it is extremely costly; and it is very “hospicentric”, or curative, in nature.
“For any intervention dealing with the cost of healthcare like the NHI to make any sense, a complete re-engineering is essential and it is an obligation placed upon our shoulders,” Mosoaledi said. — I-Net Bridge