The Portfolio Committee on Health says first phase of public participation on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill shows ‘unwavering support’ for the scheme, but that ‘in most cases’ this was ‘predicated on the need for the Department of Health to fix the current healthcare challenges’.
A Parliamentary Communication Services statement on the ‘extensive public hearings’ on NHI in all the nine provinces said that ‘the majority of participants across the country pronounced their unwavering support for the Bill, especially because of the expected benefits that will enhance universal healthcare especially for the poor’.
However it added: ‘But in most cases the support for the Bill was predicated on the need for the Department of Health to fix the current healthcare challenges that will ensure, if optimally utilised, an effective healthcare system. Fixing of these challenges include the hiring of more doctors and nurses, investment in infrastructure development and ensuring accountability at all levels of the healthcare sector.’
It said that ‘(despite) a majority of people endorsing the Bill and calling for its immediate implementation, there were those that vehemently opposed the Bill primarily because of the ambiguity in relation to the funding model, dwindling revenue base and apprehension on the governance of the fund as a result of corruption’.
The statement noted that in the case of hearings at the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, ‘participants emphasised the need for effective governance, as well as performance monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the benefits of NHI are felt by all across the country – and to ensure that the fund doesn’t follow the same route as other state-owned entities’.
The Portfolio Committee ‘(furthermore) … reemphasises that numbers are not supreme in this process, but consideration will be exclusively made on what is of benefit to the people of South Africa in achieving a universal healthcare coverage’.
The committee would now ‘engage stakeholders and organisations that made written submissions to it, and that will form the last phase of public participation on the Bill at National Assembly level’.
The statement said the committee ‘is still to decide on when the second phase will commence and on modalities of this phase’.