Looming NHI

Dev1

Dev1

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I would like to hear from those working at Medical Aid Groups what the feeling is with the NHI looming over us all. What are your plans for the future, if you can share some of your management thinking?
 
The NHI is mostly to benefit the private hospital groups. Netcare, Mediclinic and Life Healthcare -- their lawyers probably wrote most of the bill. The business case is straightforward: private hospitals currently only benefit from rich private-health-insurance clients, who are a tiny minority of the population. If poorer patients could also use their facilities -- paid for by taxpayers -- the hospital groups stand to make A LOT more money.

Medical aids I'm not so sure about. But chances are they will benefit too, possibly by intermediating between the hospital groups and the government, hospital groups and the pharmaceutical industry, etc. More money sloshing around in healthcare can't possibly hurt them, anyway.

The lawyers have been feeding at the trough during the era of State Capture. The medical professionals will feed next.

That's my take on it.
 
Tomtomtom said:
The NHI is mostly to benefit the private hospital groups. Netcare, Mediclinic and Life Healthcare -- their lawyers probably wrote most of the bill. The business case is straightforward: private hospitals currently only benefit from rich private-health-insurance clients, who are a tiny minority of the population. If poorer patients could also use their facilities -- paid for by taxpayers -- the hospital groups stand to make A LOT more money.

Medical aids I'm not so sure about. But chances are they will benefit too, possibly by intermediating between the hospital groups and the government, hospital groups and the pharmaceutical industry, etc. More money sloshing around in healthcare can't possibly hurt them, anyway.

The lawyers have been feeding at the trough during the era of State Capture. The medical professionals will feed next.

That's my take on it.
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I can't disagree more, if anything it would mean more regulation for their costing surely
 
Specialists already are going to hate it with maximums going to be brought it. Apparently the medical aids are going to be having a war to see who wins the tender to administer it as the one who administers it stands to rake in big money.
 
Well... Discovery shares are down 20% in 3 days...
 
Think that last paragraph is the problem. The CEO shouldn't have said that Discovery supports NHI and will contribute towards the successful implementation. It's probably some of the reason why the share price fell. To have that last paragraph there whilst saying that they are still going through the NHI bill to comment fully doesn't make sense. It just makes it seem like they support NHI as the politicians want it to be with extra taxes on the middle class and rich.

I did see somewhere else that Discovery does have concerns about how NHI is going to be funded. So maybe more will be said soon.
 
Aharon said:
Well... Discovery shares are down 20% in 3 days...
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more due to an analyst poking some holes in their life book valuation. She valued it a certain way... check out twitter - David Shapiro.

Quite sure Discovery(administrator crew) are chomping at the bit - they are one of the only credible outfits that will be able to administer 60m people... kaching!
 
Here is the run down. NHI will be funded by taxing the middle class at around the rate you currenly pay for medical aid, hence you will no longer be able to afford medical aid, hence the middle class will have to get the same level care as the poor from the same hospitals that used to cover only them prior to that. Hence care will inevitably be 10x poorer as resources will be massively stretched. This will cause a flight of nurses and doctors, further reducing healthcare, which will be a key pillar of middle class life removed in its entirety. This would inevitably lead to the collapse of the middle class as they exit the country. It is unworkable.

Its a massive escalation of take from the rich to give to the poor that will break the back of the economy.

Once you eliminate one of these 5 pillars the middle class no longer is willing to remain in your country:

- Healthcare
- Safety
- Employment
- Protection of property
- Education for kids

These are the 5 pillars of life for the average tax paying man. These are the things poor people most desire. The populist government should have provided the above 5 for the poor by now by fixing education, which would have stimulated economic growth, which would have fixed the other stuff like healthcare, employment, etc. As they are utterly incapable of doing that they instead try take from us to win a few election votes.
 
i think its right what the mense wanna do coz why must i go sit hole day by the day hospital when there is alota hospitals in cape town who can help all the mense
 
Ive been 15 years in this industry of which the NHI has been a threat for about 10 years so not really too phased about it at this point and management doesn't seem to be either so no need for panic just yet.

My take is, there are pretty much only 3 major administrators namely Discovery, Medscheme or universal health who could possibly do a proper job at administration of which only 2 to my knowledge currently do administration for the Gems medical scheme and of those 2, only 1 does administration for the parliament and police medical aids as well so im assuming current relationships with government would go towards who gets the tender or part of the tender as im sure it will be distributed to more than one administrator which was the talk at the beginning of the NHI saga.
 
Here is an update from the Discovery CEO. A bit more clear than the previous communication. Shows that Discovery is not 100% on board with NHI in its current form.

Since the release of the NHI Bill on Thursday last week, the extent of negative sentiment from press, investment markets and other stakeholders has been substantial. I wanted to reach out to you and share some thoughts.

The NHI is a huge, complex and multi-decade initiative and a considerable amount of debate and effort will be required to make it workable. Our position on NHI is unequivocal: we are supportive of an NHI that assists in strengthening and improving the healthcare system for all South Africans - little is more important. You will know that we have consistently expressed our support and made our capabilities available for its development. We are committed to assisting where we can in building it, and making it workable and sustainable. Of course, debates about its timing, affordability, execution and more will no doubt be complex.

A central issue that we are close to and upon which we must comment is the future role of private healthcare and medical schemes – what it means for medical schemes to provide “complimentary cover ” to the NHI and when this will take effect. Our strong view is that substantially limiting the role of medical schemes would be counterproductive to the NHI because there are simply insufficient resources to meet the needs of all South Africans - this is an unavoidable reality. Limiting people from purchasing the medical scheme coverage they seek will seriously curtail the healthcare they expect and demand - this will erode sentiment, denude the country of skills and impact the economy. Crucially, this approach will burden the NHI with demand that would drain the very resources that must be used for people in most need. This would be detrimental to all South Africans and would undermine the objectives of the NHI as we understand it.

While this is our strong view, the Bill needs clarification since it makes the point that the “complimentary role” for medical schemes will only apply once the NHI is “fully implemented”. It defines “referral pathways” to which it will apply, indicating that where patients choose not to follow the referral pathways, the NHI will not reimburse their care, and that they can then claim from private health insurance. The Bill clearly gives rise to different interpretations - we will engage actively and constructively on this issue to ensure that the important role of medical schemes and private healthcare remains part of the healthcare system, together with the NHI.

Having said this, we remain deeply confident that the resulting environment will be rational and workable. I must stress that our plans for Discovery Health remain the same. If anything, the future will be more complex and the need to invest in capabilities and technology are likely to increase substantially. That is what we plan to do.

Discovery is committed to playing its role in building a positive future - for our members, South Africa’s doctors and healthcare professionals, and for all South Africans.


Sincerely,

Adrian
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