Health Funders Association open to negotiation on NHI, as Godongwana eyes truce amid court challenges

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is eyeing a truce around opposition to the National Health Insurance (NHI), saying he wants legal challenges to be settled out of court.

During debate on the medium-term budget in the National Assembly, Gondongwana said he believes solutions can be found to address the concerns of medical associations.

There are nine court cases on the go that are blocking the implementation of the NHI Act, including one by the Health Funders Association (HFA).

Stephen Grootes asks Craig Comrie, Association chairperson and CEO of the Profmed Medical Aid scheme, whether the HFA would be open to negotiation over this.

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They have always wanted to sit around the table with government and avoid the protracted legal cases that are now going on, says Comrie.

"Through our consultation processes there were lots of submissions from both the funding associations and also the provider associations , with doctors indicating their preference for alternatives... which are far more realistic in terms of achieving improvement in terms of achieving universal healthcare coverage. So, we welcome the Minister's pronouncements on opening up and hopefully an invitation will follow to have those discussions."

How optimistic is he about finding common ground?

Comrie emphasizes that there are a few key parts of the NHI Act where concessions are needed if government wants buy-in from the private healthcare sector.

Some of these affect the constitutionality around how you would fund healthcare and the role of medical schemes specifically, he says.

"We find in a lot of universal healthcare systems or national health systems that private healthcare plays a small but important role in providing funding for healthcare. What we have to manage is to do it in a framework that improves the equity that we see or the inequities we see in the health system currently."

Scroll up to the audio player to hear more from the Health Funders Association chair