Legislation: Ministers to meet on provincial implications of NHI Bill

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni intends discussing the provincial ‘implications’ of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill with Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. This was confirmed by National Treasury on Friday in a media statement following last week’s budget council meeting, reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. Established in terms of the 1997 Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Act, the council comprises the Finance Minister and provincial executive committee members responsible for finance. Among other things – ‘while broadly supporting the objective of universal healthcare’ – the meeting noted the potentially ‘substantial impact’ of NHI on intergovernmental fiscal relations, the need for provincial participation in all ‘processes’ related to the Bill, and the importance of introducing NHI ‘in a phased manner’.

Given the constitutionally enshrined role of provincial governments in organising local healthcare services, concerns have been raised in certain quarters about the centralisation of health functions under NHI. Having sought an ‘urgent legal opinion’ on the matter, the DA may well have been behind National Assembly Health Committee chair Sibongiseni Dhlomo’s request for a briefing on the Bill’s constitutionality from representatives of the Office of the State Law Adviser. A committee press release announcing the move tends to suggest that the briefing will precede any formal deliberations on the Bill.

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