National Health Insurance in South Africa
Government Documents on Proposed National Health Insurance
The purpose of this series of policy briefs on National Health Insurance (NHI) and the related IMSA web-site is to put in the public domain material and evidence that will progress the technical work of developing a National Health Insurance system in South Africa. This includes tools for costing NHI and evidence on where savings could be achieved in moving to a future mandatory system with universal coverage.
An initial background brief covered NHI developments from the 1940s up to December 2008 and a separate brief provides resources on the debate around mandatory insurance in South Africa during 2009. This brief on developments in 2010 will be added to throughout the year.
The ANC proposals were handed to the Department of Health for further development in late June 2009. There are no documents by Government in the public domain on the current NHI proposals under development. The Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on NHI has begun to meet.
Establishment of NHI Advisory Committee [from NHI in South Africa in 2009]
The Government Gazette GG32564 of 11th September 2009 announced the formation of the National Health Insurance Advisory Committee. It will advise the Minister of Health on the development of policy and legislation relating to the introduction of NHI. It provides for the appointment of a committee, its terms of reference and for remuneration of committee members.
http://www.greengazette.co.za/docs/2009/09/Gazettes/National/20090911%20-%20National%20Gazette%20No%2032564%20of%2011-Sep-2009,%20Volume%20531.pdf
The appointments to the NHI Advisory Committee were announced on 5 November 2009 by the Minister of Health. The Committee is chaired by Dr Olive Shisana. Health-e News provided a short summary of the experience of each of the 25 committee members, see:
http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032555
Statement by the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, on the National Health Leaders' Retreat 2010 [See also report under Research: Kaiser Family Foundation]
http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/sp/sp0126-f.html
“We gathered as the National Health Leadership together with International Experts from more than eight different countries chosen because those countries have experience in dealing with many of the major health policy challenges we, as South African, are also faced with. Specifically, we worked on developing a shared vision and collective purpose on how we as the national health leadership will drive our priority health agenda for the next five years. As you are aware, these priorities find expression in the 2009 - 2014 Ten Point Plan. We specifically recognized and recommitted to the priorities of the National Health Insurance (NHI), full implementation of the National HIV and AIDS Plan, an improved Quality and Efficiency across the public health system. We determined that the yardstick against which our plans and progress should be measured are expenditure control, equity and efficiency. ...
We also recognized that while we are progressing on national macro-policy priorities such as the NHI, we must effect immediate and evident improvement in Quality and Efficiency particularly at Primary Health Care level. ... We, as the national health leadership, resolved to proceed with transparency and accountability recognizing the need to balance short-term deliverables with our long-term policy priorities.”
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health
Members of the Portfolio Committee:
http://www.parliament.gov.za/live/content.php?Item_ID=215&CommitteeID=15
“Portfolio committee marks four key health areas”
Source: Slindile Khanyile: Business Report, 2 February 2010
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=5335164
“The parliamentary portfolio committee on health has four priorities this year: monitoring the private healthcare sector closely, pushing for the National Health Insurance (NHI), regulating traditional healers and ensuring South Africa is ready for health emergencies during the World Cup. Chairman Bevan Goqwana said that the committee would conduct an oversight study to understand what was happening in the private healthcare sector. .... Goqwana said the committee was expecting the Department of Health to deliver a policy document on the proposed NHI next month. He said the committee wanted to make sure that it succeeded and was listening to quite a few people from other countries who were sharing how they had done it. He said that South Africa was unique in that there were huge inequities in the health system and the NHI must address that. The NHI implementation plan is expected to be ready by July. ...”
National Planning Commission
The Minister in The Presidency for National Planning, Trevor Manuel, has called for nominations for the National Planning Commission (NPC). Applications for the NPC secretariat are also are also called for and can be made electronically.
See http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/nationalplanningcommission.asp
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