An additional R4.2bn has been allocated to National Health Insurance (NHI) over the medium term in the latest budget.
The question is what has been done with the money that has already been allocated to the plan and how will the new funds will be used?
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Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba didn’t cut state subsidies for private medical aid members outright but your pocket may still feel the pinch.
The National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme seems to be back on track. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba announced a 49% increase over three years for a conditional grant that goes to the
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Treasury has allocated an additional R4.2-billion to the National Health Insurance (NHI), sticking to its guns on funding it through cutting tax credits. In the budget tabled by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba on Wednesday, an additional R700-million was set aside for 2018/19, R1.4 billion for 2019/20 and R2.1 billion for 2020/21 – all to be..
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We entered 2017 reeling from a series of double-digit medical insurance premium hikes. It was becoming clear that schemes are in trouble; undercut by unregulated, selective insurance products and forced into tighter and tighter modes of managing care delivered.
We were facing an affordability crisis then – that, without serious systematic change, schemes will be unable to derail their progression towards shrinking memberships and eventual collapse.
Moving into 2018, scheme’s reserves are under threat, memberships are stagnant and the system continues, for the most part, to tolerate overutilisation of hospital services while failing to invest in strengthening community-level care. Alternative fee models remain tentative and marginal, neither inspiring nor supporting any structural changes in the fragmented way healthcare services are delivered. In light of this, I predict the following for the coming year:
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The ruling party says it’s time to get serious about funding and rolling out South Africa’s universal access to healthcare plan. Your medical aid tax credits could be back on the chopping block if a decision by the education and health subcommittee of the ANC’s national executive committee is anything to go by. The committee..
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There has been talk for some time now about the National Health Insurance (NHI) and how it will be funded. In his Budget Speech in February 2017, former finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, alluded to an adjustment to medical tax credits to partly fund the system. “The rationale behind replacing the tax deduction system with the..
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South Africa compares unfavourably with middle-income countries on the ratios of medical and dental professionals, and many districts have limited access to specialists and subspecialists. Even South Africa’s private sector has fewer doctors per 100 000 people than most countries in the world. A comprehensive report produced by Econex after a request from the Hospital..
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Many private hospitals will be opening their doors to more patients but does that mean you’ll be stuck at the back of the queue? The United Kingdom’s universal healthcare system, known as the National Health Service (NHS), had a problem: By the early 2000s, a growing number of elderly patients were waiting up to three..
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South Africa can’t wait for the final National Health Insurance (NHI) system in 2026 to start delivering on universal health coverage, but needs to start implementing projects and programmes that will make a real difference in people’s lives now. And this can’t be done without cooperation between the public and private health sectors. This was..
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Globally, noncommunicable diseases were responsible for 70% of deaths in 2015, up from 60% in 2000. Ischaemic heart disease was the leading cause of death accounting for 8.8 million deaths in 2015, followed by stroke (6.2 million deaths) and lower respiratory infections (3.2 million deaths). Communicable (infectious) diseases, on the other hand, were the cause..
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