IOL News reports that Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana says the government has not decided on the funding model for National Health Insurance (NHI).

This will be discussed with the Department of Health (DOH) after President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the NHI Bill into law. There was no doubt that Ramaphosa would assent to the bill, Godongwana added on Wednesday when answering questions in Parliament. He refused to be drawn on how much the NHI would cost once the DOH started implementing it. The NHI Bill was passed by Parliament last December and Ramaphosa has said he would be signing the bill into law. But political parties have threatened to challenge it in court as they claim it is unlawful and unconstitutional. Godongwana referred to the possibility of taxes being used to fund the NHI and commented further: “People made reference to a tax for NHI. I have not mentioned that. At no stage I mentioned it. I mention taxes once a year, on Budget day. I don’t go around everywhere mentioning tax. If I am going to tax anything you will hear next year on February 19.” He went on to say: “The last point, I have said in the White Paper there are different scenarios that have been proposed for financing healthcare. Once the bill has been assented to by the president we will then work with the department of health on those scenarios and rollout the NHI.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Siyabonga Mkhwanazi at IOL News

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