Motsoaledi: NHI not being sold to private medical aid schemes

CAPE TOWN - Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has used his budget vote in Parliament to respond to claims by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) that the National Health Insurance (NHI) was being "sold" to private medical schemes.

In a bid to set the record straight, Motsoaledi has said that media reports about government being unprepared to introduce the NHI are not true.

He said more than R40 billion has already been spent over the past five years, laying the groundwork for the scheme.

Cosatu says it is opposed to a multi-payer system that would make provision for a number of separate fund schemes, organised by people’s income.

It also doesn’t want the private sector to offer any services to the NHI.

However, the minister says there’s no truth to claims that the NHI is being sold to private medical aids.

The five-year preparatory phase of the NHI ends this year.

Motsoaledi says there will be a total of 701 new or refurbished clinics by then, within and outside of the pilot districts, to provide healthcare under the scheme.

(Edited by Shimoney Regter)