Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi provided little information on Thursday on how his department will spend its R62.2billion budget in the 2024-25 financial year. Instead, Motsoaledi made a case for the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI).
Tabling the budget vote, he said the department’s budget was a 3.5% increase from R60.1bn in the last financial year.
“The details of how this money is going to be spent are well elaborated in the annual performance plan of the department. Hence I will move to other very important matters.”
He said since his appointment, he has given interviews on his plans and priorities for the next five years.
“I have given and will always give a standard answer, viz. for the health sector, priorities and plans have been outlined years ago by the supreme body on health, the World Health Organisation (WHO).”
One of the building blocks, he said, was that the health financing system, in the form of the NHI, has generated heat and sometimes fury.
“We will have to start implementing the NHI in phases, as we are already in Phase 2. The rest of the building blocks of health will easily fall into place.”
Motsoaledi said South Africa was the most unequal society in the world.
“Within the borders of the same country, some are getting world-class health care, while others get such poor health care you may believe we live in different countries. We can no longer with our eyes open ... sustain such gross inequality. If there is something we can do about it, we must do it here and now,” he said.
The minister said the government had subsidised private health for the rich in an unimaginable way as it spent R70bn on 1.3 million public servants, public representatives and judges in the form of medical aid subsidy.
DA MP Michéle Clarke said her party has always advocated quality universal health care for the people.
“But it is of critical importance that we strengthen public partnerships with the private health sector to achieve these objectives. The NHI in its current form is unaffordable and needs to be urgently reviewed,” Clarke said.
She said 90.3% of the department’s budget made transfers to provincial departments for conditional grants.
“As a committee, it’s our responsibility to ensure we conduct continuous oversight to ensure our provinces meet their targets, deal with mismanagement, fraud and corruption and massive medico-legal claims to the tune of R77bn in March last year.”
EFF MP Suzan Thembekwayo said the department did not exercise oversight responsibility in financial and performance reporting and related issues.
She said free, universal and quality health care for all was needed.
“The NHI Act, which was signed before the election, is insufficient legislative measure. It will enrich the private hospitals and not improve the quality of services in the public institutions,” she said.
Freedom Front Plus’s Philip van Staden said his party was convinced that the NHI would not succeed in improving the quality of public health care.
“If the problems are resolved, the money that is usually lost could be used to improve medical care at grass-roots level,” said Van Staden.
ActionSA’s Kgosi Letlape said health care in the country was in crisis and required proper stewardship and leadership from Parliament.
He said MPs should stop using Parmed, a statutory medical aid for public representatives.
Agreeing with Letlape, Motsoaledi said: “As MPs, we need to be treated where our people are treated, then we will understand what is going on.”
Cape Times