Motsoaledi shrugs off NHI economic shortfall projections as ‘wrong’

JOHANNESBURG - Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has dismissed calculations made by economic consultancy company Econex, which projects a shortfall of R200 billion for the National Health Insurance (NHI).

Econex claims that by 2025, the costs to implement the NHI system will have escalated to almost double the shortfall government is expecting.

The NHI white paper was published in December last year, and the public had time until the end of May to make submissions.

Motsoaledi says Econex has made the wrong calculations.

"They are basing their calculations on what is not going to happen in NHI [and] on the exorbitant fees that are being charged in the private healthcare sector today."

But Econex managing director Nicola Theron disagrees.

"We also have significant resource constraints, in terms of hospital beds and doctors and therefore we foresee a much bigger shortfall that one has to think about, beforehand, how that is going to be financed."