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BusinessLive writes that Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is resolutely sticking to the government’s ambitious goal of implementing National Health Insurance (NHI) by 2025, despite the dramatic downturn in the economy since the policy was first flighted six years ago.
The government’s latest white paper on NHI still refers to the cost projections in the 2011 green paper, which said the annual cost of NHI in 2025 would be R256bn in 2010 terms, assuming the economy grew 3.5% a year. Yet the latest Reserve Bank prediction is for GDP growth of a mere 1% in 2017 and 1.5% for 2018. "I think it is really worrying that we have an official government document with 2010 figures, when supposedly there has been a lot of work done to develop the policy," said Econex economist Mariné Erasmus. Motsoaledi released the white paper at a media briefing on Thursday, emphasising the need to reform health financing to end the deep inequities in the system. Yet, he steered away from discussion about the affordability of NHI.
- Read this informative report by Tamar Kahn in full at BusinessLive
- Read too, NHI to cost R69bn over a period of four years, says Motsoaledi, at The Citizen
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page