NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 474
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 21 October 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 32)
Mrs B L Abrahams (DA-Gauteng) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) With reference to his departmentâs booklet titled, National Health
Insurance â Health Care for all South Africans (details furnished),
(a) how will persons who are presently struggling to maintain medical
aid payments contribute less to the National Health Insurance Fund and
still get a good service in return, (b) what does his department mean
by the statement âContribute considerable lessâ, and (c) what
financing model has been used in this regard;
(2) with reference to a certain statement from the said booklet (details
furnished), what amount will be paid to health (a) professionals and
(b) institutions?
CW575E
REPLY:
1) (a) A key principle upon which the proposed National Health
Insurance for South Africa is based is that of affordability.
This implies that the National Health Insurance must be
affordable firstly to the country, taking into account the
available financial, human and other related resources; and
secondly to the individuals that will have to make mandatory
contributions towards supplementing the financial resources
allocated to National Health Insurance. It is common knowledge
that many South African households are struggling to meet their
monthly contributions towards their medical scheme cover because
of the past decade, medical scheme contributions have been
increasing at a rate higher than CPX;
(b) Therefore, to ensure that National Health Insurance does not
overburden households and individuals in terms of contributions,
one of the key technical work that is being undertaken through
engagements with the National Treasury is to determine
contribution rates that are as low and broad as is possible;
(c) The costing model that was used to determine the indicative
resource envelope required for the National Health Insurance and
hence the gap that would need to be financed through mandatory
contributions is the International Labour Organisationâs costing
model which takes into account a countryâs population, the
target utilisation rates and appropriately selected unit costs
for service provision.
2) The Department is yet to determine an amount that will be paid to
either (a) professionals or (b) institutions as provider
reimbursements. The Departmentâs position is that National Health
Insurance will be implemented through a phased, 14 year approach. In
the initial years, focus will be directed at enhancing the capacity of
the health system to deliver quality health care to all South
Africans. This work will also include developing and implementing
policies and legislative instruments that are intended to address the
challenge of costs escalation in the health sector to ensure
affordability and sustainability of the health system.
END.