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BL Premium reports that the government plans to implement National Health Insurance (NHI) incrementally and gradually phase out the role medical schemes play in funding private healthcare services.
This was indicated by Health Minister Joe Phaahla on Tuesday at a virtual event hosted by medical scheme administrator Momentum Health Solutions (MHS). “NHI is not going to be something that happens at a go, at full blast. Medical schemes will continue to cover those aspects that NHI is not covering at the introductory level,” Phaahla told delegates. NHI is the government’s plan for achieving universal health coverage and aims to ensure everyone has access to health services that are free at the point of delivery. It aims to pool finances in a central fund that will buy services on behalf of the population, with the rich and healthy subsidising the poor and sick. The first piece of enabling legislation, the NHI Bill, is currently before parliament. Phaahla’s comments are likely to provide some comfort to the R219bn medical scheme industry, as they signal a continued role for funders for at least several years to come. The role of medical schemes is one of the most contentious and ambiguous aspects of the bill. Damian McHugh of MHS noted that there appeared to have been a welcome shift in the government’s view on how to implement NHI, away from a big-bang approach. It could take years, perhaps as long as a decade, for NHI to complete the implementation of primary healthcare cover, he pointed out. During this time, medical schemes would continue to provide cover for secondary and tertiary services.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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