It is for this reason that we have consulted widely with all relevant stakeholders and we are now on track to finalise the National Health Insurance Bill for submission to Parliament. [Applause.] It is premised on the morally compelling belief that access or lack thereof to quality health care service must not be determined by ones' socioeconomic status.
Once fully implemented, the NHI will bring to life the spirit of human solidarity where through the principle of cross- subsidisation, the young subsidise the old, the healthy subsidise the sick, and the rich subsidise the poor.
Given the urgency with which we must attend to the challenges in our health care system, we convened the first Presidential Health Summit in October last year and brought together key stakeholders from a wide range of constituencies in the sector. We emerged from the summit with very sound immediate, short-term and long-term solutions to improve the effectiveness of the health system.