The South African National Treasury announced on Friday that it has made “substantial” progress on the national health insurance (NHI) Bill consultation in key areas and have reached agreement on most of the major issues.
This statement was made in response to a so called “leaked letter” and its annexure that specified a number of ‘major problem areas’ and legal concerns with the current version of the National Health Insurance Bill.
“We are confident that we will soon publish this important Bill for tabling in Parliament. More details will be published once this process is completed and the Bill is approved by the Cabinet”, the statement of Treasury said.
In another article, the Bhekisisa Health Journalism Centre, content provider to Mail and Guardian, questioned how a centralised fund will procure a package of services from both the public and private sectors on behalf of South Africans.
According to the article a recent survey of 20 of the world’s biggest private healthcare providers showed many remain cautious of working with governments. A quarter reported no intention of changing their business models to allow public sector purchasing, according to the research presented last week at the World Innovation Summit for Health (Wish) in Doha.
Click here to read the National Treasury’s media statement.
Click here to access the survey results.
