Legislation: Latest NHI Bill hearings highlight concerns

Participants in yesterday’s public hearings on the somewhat contentious National Health Insurance Bill included several concerned about the implications of ‘endemic corruption within state-run institutions’ for NHI. This is according to a National Assembly Health Committee media statement, which also note fears that ‘staff shortages’ may well be ‘exacerbated’ by the ‘emigration’ of skilled healthcare professionals; and ‘uncertainty about where funding for the Bill will come from’ given ‘SA’s high unemployment rate and associated small tax revenue base’. Committee statements on last year’s hearings tended to gloss over these issues, observes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. 

Yesterday’s hearings also drew attention to the need for the country’s healthcare system to be ‘fixed’ and ‘well-functioning’ if NHI is to be successful – especially at primary healthcare level. In this regard, reference was made ‘insufficient’ numbers of doctors, nurses and ambulances; long queues at clinics; and infrastructure development and maintenance backlogs. In view of the ‘critical role’ of primary healthcare clinics in facilitating ‘equity and access’ for historically disadvantaged communities, the committee intends inviting Free State Health Department officials to ‘explain what they have done to address these challenges’.

This notwithstanding, thus far the nationwide programme of public hearings appears to have pointed to widespread in-principle support for the proposed new piece of legislation in the context of government’s commitment to ‘ensuring universal healthcare coverage’. Begun last October, the programme is expected to have been concluded by mid-February after one more hearing in Free State province followed by hearings in North West province, the Western Cape and Gauteng.