BL Premium reports that the second presidential health summit, scheduled for Thursday when the second presidential health compact was due to be signed, has been postponed to 22 August amid mounting concern about the compact’s endorsement of National Health Insurance (NHI).
An urgent notice from events management in the Presidency said simply that the postponement was due to “unforeseen circumstances”. Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson for President Cyril Ramaphosa, said the event was postponed “due to changes in the diary that had to be accommodated”. He claimed the postponement had nothing to do with opposition to NHI. The postponement came as the SA Medical Association (Sama) voiced concern about the compact because of its endorsement of NHI. Business Unity SA (Busa) has said it won’t sign the compact as it cannot pledge support for a policy it opposes. The draft compact circulated last week states that the government and other stakeholders commit themselves to achieving universal health coverage through NHI and that they commit to jointly implementing NHI-related health systems and service improvement plans. According to Busa, NHI in its current form was unaffordable, unworkable and would harm SA’s health system and investor confidence. The NHI Act, signed by the President on 15 May but not yet promulgated, faces legal challenges from trade union Solidarity and the Board of Healthcare Funders, representing medical schemes and administrators.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Read too, Presidency postpones signing of health compact rejected by Busa over NHI, at Fin24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page