News24 reports that while the controversial National Health Insurance (NHI) plan has been operating mostly under the radar, the government will be pumping a whopping R8.8 billion into the ambitious plan over the next three years.

A report by parliament’s health portfolio committee on the department of health’s budget and annual performance plan indicates that the phased implementation of the NHI will continue. "Over the MTEF (medium-term expenditure framework), R8.8 billion is allocated for NHI activities – the National Health Insurance Indirect Grant is allocated R6.5 billion [and] R2.1 billion is allocated to provincial health departments through the direct National Health Insurance Grant,” the report advises. "This will be used for contracting primary health care doctors, and mental health and oncology service providers. R174.2 million is earmarked for capacitating the department's National Health Insurance unit and building its health technology assessment," the report informs. Regarding implementation of the NHI service, the committee noted the following: “The department is still in the process of developing and implementing the Electronic Health Record (EHR), which will collate all the patient’s health data and information into one digital record, providing complete and up-to-date information at the point of care.” But, the committee noted with concern that the costing model for the NHI was still outstanding. Funds had been allocated to the department for NHI, but the National Treasury had not engaged the committee about the costing model. Previously, several civil society organisations had raised concerns with the implementation of the NHI.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jason Felix at News24 (subscriber access only)

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