The new National Health Insurance (NHI) is extraordinary in how open-ended its fundraising plans are, says Patrick Bracher a director at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a panel discussion in Sandton on Wednesday (5 September), Bracher said that\u00a0one of the proposed sources of funding under the new NHI Bill<\/a><\/strong> is ‘any \ufb01nes imposed in terms of this act other than by a court of law’.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n “This is an extraordinary thing because if you have the people who are short of money imposing the fines, they are going to look for people to fine,” he said.<\/p>\n “(They will) be able to raise more money by fining medical providers for breaching some clause, and that should never be the case. A judge should never get fines in his or her pockets either – that’s just one of the fundamental principle of democracy.”<\/p>\n In addition to these fines, Bracher said that the NHI will be funded through the scrapping of medical aid tax credits and a payroll tax.<\/p>\n If that isn’t enough, it also proposes a surcharge on personal income tax, he said.<\/p>\n “This is a completely open-ended equation and is unique in that all of these funds are being raised for one particular act.”<\/p>\n Funding\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Bracher said that the NHI Bill was also unusual in that most legislation has a page attached to the back which outlines the financial implications for the new law.<\/p>\n While there is a section in the act that talks about funding, Bracher said that this section effectively states that the bill is a ‘work in progress’ and has not been approved by the minister of finance.<\/p>\n “The minister of finance will then have to approve a money bill that includes all these sources of funding,” he said.<\/p>\n “The sad thing is that when you actually look at what’s going to be funded there are more than 10 different new structures”.<\/p>\n This includes:<\/p>\n “While these new structures will all be funded as part of the new NHI, there will also be a serious cost in registering everyone in the country,” Bracher said.<\/p>\n “You need to register 45 million people and then you need to register every healthcare provider who wants to be accredited.<\/p>\n “The financial implications here are huge, so until we hear from the minister of finance we will not know where we are going.”<\/p>\n\n