Pretoria - On Thursday the Department of Health announced a committee that will advise it on the content of South Africa's final national health insurance (NHI) scheme.
The committee includes 25 experts, among them Dr Olive Shisana, chief executive of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). She also chairs the ANC task team that drew up the controversial initial NHI document.
Aids activist Mark Heywood from the Aids Law Project and deputy chair of the South African National Aids Council, is also a member of the committee. He frequently butted heads with former Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Other members include health economist Professor Di McIntyre, Dr Mark Blecher of the National Treasury and Professor William Pick, professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Kurt Worrall-Clare of the Hospital Association said that another committee member, Roly Buys, is extremely experienced and proficient, but appears to be the committee?s only representative from the private hospital sector.
He believes the inclusion of many economic and financial experts is an indication of the seriousness accorded to the NHI?s financial sustainability.
Speculation was rife this week as to whether the NHI plan would be revised in its entirety with the help of the committee, or simply finalised in its current form.
According to the department, the advisory committee's task will be to listen to comments from the public and ensure that these are taken into consideration when drawing up the final NHI plan.
The Department of Health has for months been undertaking to make an NHI document available for commentary "soon".
Earlier this week it was rumoured that the previous ANC task team's document had been rejected on account of its poor quality.
Sake24 ascertained that an international health economist had found the plan unsustainable.
Experts also believe that the tax burden on South Africans will be too onerous if the NHI task team's plan is introduced in its current format.
All South Africans would be forced to belong to the NHI and share services, but the poor would make no contribution.
On Thursday Sake24 learnt that Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Minister of Health, was concerned about the quality of the NHI plan in its current form. He apparently first wants to fix the state health system.
But there is strong pressure within the ANC to introduce the NHI as quickly as possible, even if the technical and financial aspects of the proposals have not been properly ironed out yet.
In the medium-term expenditure framework no money was set aside for the NHI. Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan some time ago said that the emphasis would first be to get the state health system into shape.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.