The Minister of Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, says he will not answer questions about where the government will find the money to fund National Health Insurance (NHI).
NHI was one of the subjects that came up during a “questions for oral reply” plenary in the National Assembly yesterday.
Freedom Front Plus MP Philip van Staden pressed Motsoaledi to explain how NHI will be funded. He said the minister has previously disclosed that NHI will be tax-funded, yet the tax base is shrinking each year. Earlier this year, the Democratic Alliance said another R859 billion would be needed to fund NHI, while Momentum Health Solutions recently estimated NHI will cost more than R1.3 trillion a year, he said.
“Can the minister inform South Africans today, once and for all, where the funding for NHI is going to come from? If not, why not? And if the minister really believes that already overburdened taxpayers will simply accept another form of tax to fund the NHI?” Van Staden asked.
Motsoaledi said when, in 2010, the Department of Health launched an HIV testing and counselling programme – regarded as the biggest in the world – he was asked how it would be funded. He said the record shows he refused to answer that question.
“You can’t, when people are dying and you have got to treat them, start asking questions like that.”
He said no one asked where the money would come from when the first medical aid policy was introduced in 1967, nor how private hospitals and healthcare would be funded.
“So, when we want to treat South Africans, even those who are poor, we are saying, where will the money come from? I’m not going to answer that question.”
Motsoaledi asked rhetorically where the state derives the money to provide infrastructure and services.
He added the assumption that the tax base is shrinking is because of “this sick thinking” that only the rich pay tax, whereas every South African pays tax of one type or another.
A question from DA MP Michéle Clarke on the funding of NHI led to Motsoaledi’s repeating his comment made last month that Momentum’s R1.3-trillion estimate is “mathematical hooliganism”.
Read: Momentum’s NHI cost estimate is ‘mathematical hooliganism’, says Health Minister
The figure was “deliberately circulated” to stir up public anger because it “will sound crazy for the state to introduce a health-financing system that will cost the same or even more than the total budget of the country”, the minister said yesterday.
He said, as he did before, that the calculation was based on the incorrect assumption that treatment under NHI would be provided using only private hospitals.
Motsoaledi said NHI would provide quality healthcare, but quality healthcare does not necessarily mean expensive healthcare, asserting that some of the charges in the private healthcare sector “are ridiculous”.
The minister point-blank refused to answer Clarke’s question about how much his department is spending on roadshows to engage with stakeholders and the public about NHI.
He said every Cabinet minister has the right to talk with members of society about anything related to their department at any time. Motsoaledi suggested Clarke ask all the other ministers how much they spend on similar engagements with the public.
This minister demonstrates what we all know about politicians… they are all brainless idiots who don’t have a clue.
This particular specie is a class above the rest
You never thought this through
You just sign sign!!!!
Who will pay the bills if the Good and educated Dr’s And Specialsists nurses etc.
They are wonderful Dr’s
Now you want to mess this up as well
Like they did with all the Clinics hospitals
And everything else. They looted broke it down one by one and told the people to sleep ourside on the floors no medication
It’s disgusting now you want to loot the NHI like they done with all these other government departments.
You have no shame.
Who is going to pay these Dr’s answer
Cause most of the Good Dr’s have left the country already
Disgraceful
The money that comes in is for the poor buy your government just help yourself.
The NHI