Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana said they have not decided on the funding model for the NHI. Picture: Jairus Mmutle/GCIS
Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana says they have not decided on the finding model for the National Health Insurance.
They will start discussing this with the department of health after President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the NHI Bill into law.
There was no doubt that Ramaphosa will assent to the bill, said Godongwana.
He refused to be drawn on how much the NHI will cost once they start implementing it.
The NHI Bill was passed by Parliament last December and Ramaphosa has said he will sign the bill into law.
But political parties have threatened to challenge it in court.
They have argued that it was unlawful and unconstitutional.
Godongwana was on Wednesday answering questions in Parliament.
Members of political parties wanted to know if there was a funding model for the NHI.
He said when he tabled his Budget speech in February the Bill had not yet been signed into law.
However, the budget of the department of health has three components. One component was the salary of employees amounting to R11.6 billion.
The second component of the department was to upgrade infrastructure in healthcare facilities. The last element of the budget was R1.4bn that was allocated to NHI pilot projects.
Godongwana said people have made references to taxes being used to fund the NHI, but he has not made such an announcement.
“People made reference to a tax for NHI. I have not mentioned that. At no stage I mentioned it. I mention taxes once a year, on Budget day. I don;t go around everywhere mentioning tax. If I am going to tax anything you will hear next year on February 19,
“The last point, I have said in the White Paper there are different scenarios that have been proposed for financing healthcare. Once the bill has been assented to by the president we will then work with the department of health on those scenarios and rollout the NHI,” said Godongwana.
There was no figure on the table from government.
But the NHI would be implemented in various phases.
What government wanted to do was to ensure that when the NHI is rolled out there was proper infrastructure that met standards that had been set out.
But government could not talk about the funding of universal health coverage before Ramaphosa signed the bill into law.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics