The Finance Minister has called for a “truce” among the parties readying for court battles over the National Health Insurance Act, saying the country urgently needs to find a way to implement universal healthcare, and that the court cases would be a delay.
There has been a mixed response to the call. Business Unity SA said it hoped to meet the President for further discussions, with the President’s spokesperson saying that a meeting would be scheduled for the first quarter of the year. The Health Funders’ Association welcomed the call for engagement, collaboration, and possible settlement, rather than lengthy court processes.
The Hospital Association of South Africa issued a statement saying: “HASA has always been open to exploring collaborative solutions with government to enhance access to healthcare for all South Africans. HASA made it clear in its court papers that it would not have embarked on the NHI litigation had the government been willing to engage in constructive discussions to identify appropriate solutions to enhance access to healthcare. HASA remains open to engaging with the government and believes that positive outcomes could result from the parties working together in a transparent, constitutionally compliant manner to deliver greater access to healthcare for the people of South Africa. This will, however, necessitate the government fundamentally revisiting its approach to the NHI legislation.”
In an editorial, the Business Day argued that “Finance Minister Enoch Gondongwana is right. It’s time to end the fighting over National Health Insurance (NHI), the ANC’s blueprint for universal health coverage.”
The newspaper went on to argue that “the protracted wrangling over the reforms proposed by NHI has for far too long deflected time, energy and resources away from fixing South Africa’s health system, leaving patients to pay the price” and that there has been some positive response.
“First there is the South African Medical Association (Sama), the country’s biggest doctors’ organisation, which says it has secured a promise from health minister Aaron Motsoaledi to sit down and discuss its concerns about NHI. Like most parties contesting the NHI Act, Sama says it supports universal health coverage, but does not believe NHI is the way to achieve it and maintains it took legal action as a measure of last resort. Then there is Business Unity South Africa (Busa), which says it finally has a firm commitment from the presidency for a meeting to discuss its ideas, more than a year after it submitted them. These are significant developments, as until now the health minister and the president have appeared impervious to calls for change.”
The newspaper editorial pointed to the two alternative plans to the NHI Act that are already on the president’s desk as possible starting points, adding that “discussions need to be transparent, so the public knows what trade-offs are on the table. Negotiating health reform behind closed doors is dangerous because it runs the risk that powerful interest groups hold sway, to the detriment of weaker lobby groups or those without an organised voice.
