ANC aims to implement NHI by 2012

Nom Chompsky

Nom Chompsky

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Fleece the taxpayer, fleece the rich... and there'll be none left sooner rather than later.

South Africa's National Health Insurance (NHI) will kick off in 2012 and be implemented over a period of 14 years, African National Congress (ANC) health sub-committee chairperson Zweli Mkhize told journalists at the ANC national general council (NGC) in Durban on Tuesday.

A resolution from the last major meeting of the ANC, in Polokwane in 2007, the programme is expected to cost R128-billion in its first year, increasing to R376-billion by 2025.

The second media briefing of the day at the ruling party's mid-term conference tackled the party's controversial plan to provide universal and compulsory access to healthcare for all South Africans. While the details have long been hazy, members of the ministerial advisory committee made some specifics available from the discussions they've been having since late last year.

A funding model for the expensive plan has tentatively been put in place, in agreement with the national treasury, said Dr Olive Shisana, the CEO of the Human Science Research Council who chairs the ministerial advisory committee on the NHI.

"The ministerial advisory committee, together with treasury, is exploring several options on how to fund the NHI," she told journalists. These included:

* A surcharge on taxable income
* Payroll taxes for employees and/or employers
* An increase in value-added tax (VAT), dedicated to the NHI
* Removal of the tax credits that currently exist with regards to medical aids.

However, the main source of revenue would be from the country's general taxation.

Criticism
Critics have slammed the affordability of the plan, but the proposal says that the NHI will cost less than public and private health-sector spending combined. Mkhize said that the figures the private sector had arrived at were not the same because of the private sector's elevated costs. "We believe things can be done cheaper than what they are doing," he said.

It is a view that other stakeholders have agreed with, with the latest research from the University of Cape Town's Health Economics Unit finding that spending on the NHI would roughly match what the government currently spends on healthcare.

Mkhize said on Tuesday that preliminary calculations put the increase at just 2,5%, from 12% to 14,5% of the budget.
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Source: Mail and Guardian
 
"Free" medical for a 2.5% increase says Mkhize (Increase in what?) ...
The press announcement says:
- Income tax
- Company tax
- Vat increase
Is that then a 7.5% increase? (2.5% on each of the 3 streams mentioned)

Well, I have used the government facilities at Port Shepstone and Durban (Albert Lutuli).

Port Shepstone has improved in leaps and bounds, though it has a way to go before you can actually use the words "customer service" in that facility.

Albert Lutuli hospital is fantastic, the money they must have spent on the roof zen gardens must be astronomical, never mind the money that bought all that impressive equipment.

And, 14 years is a long enough time for a well planned steady take-over, with enough time to wean the R350 for a 7 minute GP consultancy off their money tree.

(Oh wait, make that 11 years, 3 years have passed since 2007)
 
We should really put up a website with all these promises and then see if they get implemented.
 
Economists pointed out that the pebble bed modular reactor was not financially viable. Government went ahead in any case. This year they pulled the plug and cost the tax-payer at least R14bn.

Economists pointed out when the scheme was proposed that the NHI is not financially viable. Government once again ignore them go on their own tangent for the sake of appeasing voters. Bloody ridiculous. This will be a far costlier affair than PBMR...
 
All I see is a way the ANC can buy time from voters, the attitude being .. " see we are making good on our promises ". Just one problem here, it will take 14 years to implement. If the way they 'make' it happen is to tax the population more, so be it, They must just remember a little country across the ocean that removed it's ruling establishment due to unfair high taxation.
 
DJ... said:
Economists pointed out that the pebble bed modular reactor was not financially viable. Government went ahead in any case. This year they pulled the plug and cost the tax-payer at least R14bn.

Economists pointed out when the scheme was proposed that the NHI is not financially viable. Government once again ignore them go on their own tangent for the sake of appeasing voters. Bloody ridiculous. This will be a far costlier affair than PBMR...
Click to expand...

The cost will be in lives though...

I actually support the idea of an NHI funded through taxes... to do that you need to have 80 of your workforce with jobs (and paying tax).

The other thing is that increasing vat actually affects the poor more than others, so its a rather harsh way of taxing them even though they don't have jobs.

Zuma do it in this order:

1: Make jobs
2: Sort out the hospitals that you do have, they would actually be fine if you looked after them
3: Stop wasting money on stupid stuff, like R100 000 parties for heads of hospitals.
4: Subsidise basic healthcare for everyone, sort of like a free hospital plan that will allow people to get care at any hospital

Then look at making a NHI
 
Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt said a total tax increase of about 10% might be effected.

"That's a lot of money. We can't afford this; R128-billion is a massive amount and our social expenditure bill is already far too large," he said.

"Our middle-class is already over-taxed."

Investment Solutions econ-omist Chris Hart said South Africa could see a decline in the availability and quality of skills in the health profession.

"The country may be in danger of losing a skilled set of health professionals who may not want to work under this insurance," he said. - Additional reporting by Zandile Mbabela
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See the rest here

Who can honestly afford to pay an extra 10 percent of their earnings to the government. We would have to make cut backs in our living expenses.

What would you cut back on to pay for NHI?
 
I hope this works. My only worry is how it will be funded and if that method of funding will be used exclusively for the NHI. I would gladly increase my payable tax if there was a reliable healthcare system in place in south africa.
Hopefully GEMS (the government med scheme) is not involved.
I wonder if the NHI is going to be another layer ontop of our current public dept of health hospitals or if it will be managed by the dept's as currently all our public hospitals are either managed by the DOH or local municipalities(though in the wcape at least most council clinics are being managed now from within the dept).

There are a few good things that can come from this.
Centralized drug dispensing which can drive down costs.
Drive down private hospital fees as they would have to compete with a more cohesive public offering.

Negatives.
Taxation earmarked for hospitals do not in fact go to hospitals but rather on other government projects.
Government does not crack the whip and typical civil servant laziness drives down quality of healthcare.


I hope it works. though only if they can prove it will be sustainable and guarantees are in place to ensure wastage gets stopped.
 
NHI is a first world concept that only applies in the first world because they have a massive tax base. The people pay high tax, but get high quality services across the board, and therefore have much less to spend that little bit of remaining income on.

Trying to implement NHI in South Africa is bad because that tax base is tiny, and the social services are not across the board. All that this is going to do is increase the tax burden on the already heavily taxed tax base, and provide no benefit.

Over taxation without appropriate benefits = Emigration
Emigration = Less tax
Less tax = Collapsed system
Collapsed system = EISH...eets broken!
 
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The ANC can't run anything properly - that is the problem.

We all remember the eNatis saga....and that was on a much smaller scale than the NHI. I really can't see this working. Anyway even if it does work, people will abuse the system like in the UK where the NHS are forced to take care of paralytically drunk people which would normally cost 500 pounds (or something to that effect). There should be some sort of control on what illnesses are treated by the state.
 
Whahaha!

The ANC introduced this at a medical engineering conference at the CTICC in '09. I've never seen old white (and black) professionals boo people off stage before. It was epic. :D
 
In other news, the majority of South African tax payers are leaving by 2012. :D
 
The NHI is a good idea. Im glad for it. It will help the majority of South Africans.
 
It is a good idea and I wouldn't mind supporting it... BUT... implement a birth control policy (One/Two child policy - China).. people who can't afford 1 child do NOT have the right to leech off the middle class for everything.

This is also totally the wrong thing to attempt to implement now.. Maybe if they focused on job creation and education, more people would be able to afford medical costs and not have to rely on a welfare system.... Maybe this is just the focus because of the tendering benefits that can be reaped by the struggle buddies.
 
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davemc said:
I have used the government facilities at Port Shepstone and Durban (Albert Lutuli)....
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A friend of mine is a doctor at a hospital in the Eastern Cape. She tells frightening stories of how bad it is. The facilities sound shocking. The senior staff seem to be absent and not give a ****. It sounds dirty and horrbly managed. Apparently they have to wash latex gloves so that they can be reused!
 
silentbee said:
A friend of mine is a doctor at a hospital in the Eastern Cape. She tells frightening stories of how bad it is. The facilities sound shocking. The senior staff seem to be absent and not give a ****. It sounds dirty and horrbly managed. Apparently they have to wash latex gloves so that they can be reused!
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So you would love the NHI, from what I understand, it means you can go to your regular doctor, then he claims back from the state.
 
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