President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill in May in a bid to achieve universal healthcare coverage for all. Picture: GCIS
The government’s proposal of the Second Presidential Health Compact has continued to cause havoc within business and the private healthcare industry as they stand firm against the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.
The South African Health Professionals Collaboration (SAHPC) yesterday said it will not be signing the President’s Health Compact, saying it is nothing more than an attempt to lock in support for the NHI Act.
The SAHPC is a national group of nine medical, dental and allied healthcare practitioners’ associations representing more than 25 000 dedicated private and public-sector healthcare workers.
The second compact follows the 2023 Presidential Health Summit which built on the inaugural summit of 2018 and brought together government, business, labour, civil society, health professionals, unions, service users, statutory councils, academia, and researchers to develop sustainable and inclusive solutions to challenges in the national health system.
The signing ceremony of the Health Compact was scheduled for yesterday at the Union Buildings but the Presidency yesterday said it has been postponed until next Thursday.
SAHPC spokesperson Simon Strachan said that while they acknowledged that health reforms were necessary to address the challenges in the country’s healthcare system, the way that the Health Compact has been written was fundamentally biased towards solidifying support for the NHI Act as the sole solution to achieving universal health coverage.
“The Compact heavily focuses on the NHI, presenting it as the only viable option for the country, which we don’t accept. Health professionals, including general practitioners, specialists, dentists, and allied workers are the cornerstone of health provision in this country,” Strachan said.
“Our primary concern is and always will be the well-being of patients. We do not believe that the NHI is a viable or workable model for achieving universal health coverage. Our numerous proposals and concerns have not been acknowledged.
“What is needed is urgent formal engagement with the president on the NHI and ways of achieving universal health coverage to ensure health reform is fit for purpose and truly benefits patients, the economy and the country. It is important that health reforms are developed in partnership with all those mandated to deliver this critical service,” he said.
This comes as Business Unity South Africa (Busa) on Wednesday also said it would not be signing the president’s Health Compact as it cannot support a policy that explicitly endorses the NHI Act in its current form.
The National Health Insurance Bill was signed into law on May 15, 2024, marking an important milestone on the journey by the country to realise universal health coverage without anyone incurring financial hardships as enshrined in the Constitution.
Cas Coovadia, Busa CEO, said they believe the NHI Act needed to be amended to ensure that the country was able to deliver healthcare reform and advance universal health coverage without damaging the economy and the existing skills, innovation, resources and experience that reside in the private healthcare sector.
Coovadia said the country should be leveraging these resources to help design and support a system that was fit for purpose and that was able to benefit future generations.
“The draft of the Compact that was shared with Busa promotes the NHI in its current form as the foundation underpinning healthcare reform,” Coovadia said.
“Busa does not agree with this given the serious differences between us and the government as to the appropriateness of the NHI Act, let alone its feasibility as a legislative instrument to underpin universal health coverage,” he said.
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