The DA welcomes the beginning of a national debate on achieving quality public health care for all. The DA has consistently supported the goal of ensuring that all South Africans have access to good quality health care, be it in the public or private sector.
The Green Paper offers government's view on how it intends to improve access to quality health care. The DA will be interrogating this document and will, in due course, offer its full response. Public health care as it stands is failing our citizens. Our inability to reduce child and maternal mortality is but one example of how we are failing the poor.
The DA recognises that huge changes will have to be undertaken to achieve access to quality and affordable health care for all. We also want to ensure that quality, accountability and efficiency will be the driving factors behind the necessary changes to our health care system. However, there still needs to be proper debate on how this should be done, how it should be achieved and what the first priorities are. We trust that government will be open to accepting suggestions and proposals in this regard.