NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 648
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 25 November 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 39)
Mr J M Bekker (DA-WC) to ask the Minister of Health:
With regard to a statement in the Green Paper on National Health Insurance
(NHI) (a) (details furnished), what were the reasons for using the 2008
Annual Report from the Council of Medical Schemes while the 2009 and 2010
Annual Reports were available when the Green Paper was drafted, (b) where
in the 2008 Annual Report are figures of 212% increases for hospitals and
120% increases for specialists stated and (c) what are the cost increases
for (i) hospitals and (ii) specialists as stated in the 2010 Annual Report?
CW797E
REPLY:
a) At the time of drafting the Green Paper on the National Health
Insurance (NHI), the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS)âs annual
reports for the financial years 2009 and 2010 respectively were not
available. The initial drafts of the Green Paper were prepared in
early 2009 and where it was deemed necessary, the document was further
revised to take into account recently available data;
b) The calculated increases are based on an analysis made on 2007-2008
information provided in the 2008 Annual Report of the CMS. Data from
the 2008 Annual Report was used to conduct an analysis of the main
cost drivers in the private health market. Therefore, the 212% and
120% increases for hospitals and specialists respectively are based on
the cost analyses that were done based on information from the CMS.
c) The CMSâs annual report does not provide analyses of the cost
increases for the various components on which medical schemes spends
member contributions. Instead, it provides a macro view of the
expenditure changes for medical scheme spending on key categories such
as general practitioners, specialists, private hospitals and
administration costs;
i) According to the 2010 Annual Report, hospitals expenditure, not costs,
has increased by 10% in 2010, i.e R30.8 billion from R28.0 billion in
2009; and
ii) Specialists costs have increased by 12% in 2010.
END.