PHUTI MOSOMANE
THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) welcomes the National Assembly’s adoption of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill.
The National Assembly has passed the NHI Bill with 205 MPs in support. It is now headed to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.
The NHI Bill seeks to provide for universal access to health care services in the country in accordance with the National Health Insurance White Paper and the Constitution of South Africa.
The Bill envisages the establishment of a National Health Insurance Fund and sets out its powers, functions, and governance structures. The Fund will purchase health care services for all users who are registered with it.
Cosatu Parliamentary Coordinator Matthew Parks said the overwhelming majority of workers are in support of an NHI.
“The majority of South Africans, in particular the working class, lack access to quality and affordable health care. This is not due to lack of resources but to their blatantly skewed distribution,” he said.
South Africa spends 8.5% of its Gross Domestic Product on healthcare. This is higher than many industrialised and peer nations. However, half of this is spent on the 16% of society fortunate enough to have medical aid, said Parks.
The other half is spent on public health care for the 84% dependent upon the state. As a result, Parks said the country has on the one hand, a first class but under utilised private health care available for 16% of the population charging exorbitant prices, and on the other hand a public health care overwhelmed with long queues, critical post vacancies, ageing infrastructure and shortages and thus battling to provide basic health care for the 84% of society.
He said many workers and their families are infected and are dying from easily preventable and manageable diseases.
“Even workers fortunate enough to have medical aid, battle to afford to pay the ever-increasing medical tariffs,” he said, adding that most workers’ medical aids are depleted halfway through the year, and they are saddled with unaffordable co-payments.
“They are often forced to forgo necessary but unaffordable treatment.The reality is that South Africa’s public and private health care systems are broken and unsustainable”.
Cosatu believes that it is critical that the NHI Bill now be processed and passed by the National Council of Provinces.
The Federation urged the government to move with speed to resource and build a quality NHI that will guarantee quality, accessible and affordable universal health coverage for all South Africans.
Internationally the equivalents of an NHI have worked well and provide positive models for South Africa. The UN, through its agency WHO, has championed universal health coverage across its members’ states.
According to WHO, two billion people are facing catastrophic or impoverishing health spending (SDG indicator 3.8.2) around the world.
Cosatu said the country cannot afford to be a nation that 29 years into democracy still grapples with the blatantly unequal and racially skewed distribution of resources and access to health care.
“The right to life and access to health care is a constitutional right. It is time that all South Africans are afforded this right,” Parks added.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the party welcomed the passing of the National Health Insurance Bill as a vehicle and catalyst for universal health access.
“This historic development paves the way for all South Africans to free medical health care effectively and sustainably in line with our vision for a caring society with access to services irrespective of income levels,” she said.
DA MP Michele Clarkes said the NHI will destroy health care in South Africa.
“Instead of going directly to their privately paid doctors or hospitals, they will now be competing for treatment in the public health system with its severe staff and resource constraints. The last indicators of the national surgery backlog were more than 168 000,” said Clarkes.
She added that ANC might argue that through the NHI Fund, private health facilities will be servicing a larger portion of the public previously unable to access their services. However, this is based on the ludicrous assumption that those 9 million South Africans would continue to pay their medical aids when it no longer benefits them.
Bhengu-Motsiri said Parliament’s passing of the Bill will accelerate the overhaul of the medical system that is inclusive and responsive to the needs of the poor. This overhaul will lead to improved health infrastructure, a capable and sustainable healthcare service.
INSIDE POLITICS
