{"id":556952,"date":"2022-02-10T11:42:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T09:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=556952"},"modified":"2022-02-10T11:42:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T09:42:42","slug":"this-could-be-the-death-of-private-healthcare-in-south-africa-warns-government-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/556952\/this-could-be-the-death-of-private-healthcare-in-south-africa-warns-government-body\/","title":{"rendered":"This could be the death of private healthcare in South Africa, warns government body"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Planning Commission (NPC) has recommended that the\u00a0medical scheme industry should be allowed to continue operating indefinitely, despite the planned introduction of the new National Health Insurance (NHI).<\/p>\n<p>The NHI Bill is currently undergoing a public consultation process, with a number of healthcare, civil society and political groups presenting on why the new system should or should not be introduced. The commission was established in 2010 to develop a long-term vision and strategic plan for South Africa and falls under the Presidency.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.za\/sites\/default\/files\/gcis_document\/201908\/national-health-insurance-bill-b-11-2019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Section 33 of the Bill<\/a><\/strong> states that once the NHI has been fully implemented, medical schemes may only offer complimentary cover to services not reimbursable by the NHI Fund.<\/p>\n<p>However, the NPC has warned that this clause has significant implications for the South African economy, particularly the private healthcare sector.<\/p>\n<p>In its submission to parliament this week, the commission noted that while it was broadly in favour of universal healthcare, the country would be better served by &#8216;harnessing&#8217; private healthcare facilities rather than phasing them out solely in favour of the government-run NHI.<\/p>\n<p>Limiting the role of the private sector risks potentially destroying both private and public sectors, simultaneously, it said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Regulate rather than destroy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rather than dismissing private health cover completely, the NPC said that medical schemes and related administration markets require regulatory interventions essential to make the industry more affordable.<\/p>\n<p>It added that the following\u00a0 should be considered:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Current medical scheme administration and payment systems are world-class and must be used to benefit the economy and the nation;<\/li>\n<li>The tax contributions by the industry is significant;<\/li>\n<li>The industry is a significant contributor towards employment and tax;<\/li>\n<li>The private sector is currently better placed to drive future innovation which can be used to grow the South African economy by servicing other markets on the continent and globally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Although with the risk of perpetuating the two-tier system, the medical scheme industry should be allowed to continue operating indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Regulation of the industry (should be introduced) to improve efficiencies and manage costs for the benefit of users should continue as planned and be reviewed at regular intervals.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/556798\/vat-hike-the-most-likely-option-for-south-africa-analyst\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> VAT hike the most likely option for South Africa: analyst<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Planning Commission (NPC) has recommended that the\u00a0medical scheme industry should be allowed to continue operating indefinitely, despite the planned introduction of the new National Health Insurance (NHI).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":556978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-556952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556952"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556994,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556952\/revisions\/556994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}