Karl Bremmer Hospital in Bellville. Picture Henk Kruger / Independent Newspapers
National Treasury has indicated that the implementation of the National Health Insurance was under way, with preparations already at various stages.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said a few days ago he will sign the NHI Bill into law.
However, he was still looking at whether processes were followed by Parliament before the bill was passed.
In the National Treasury’s Estimates of National Expenditure, it has been indicated that preparations were already under way.
“Preparatory work for this, which includes capacity building, is largely funded through the NHI indirect grant, which has an allocation of R6.9 billion over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period,” said the Estimates of National Expenditure.
“The grant previously had three components, two of which (the non-personal) services component and the personal services have been combined to form the health systems component. The new combined component is allocated R2.4bn over the MTEF period, with spending set to increase at an average annual rate of 4.6%.”
This is aimed at strengthening health systems, improve the dispensing of medicine through the centralised chronic medication dispensing and distribution programme and help to address the findings of the Office of Health Standards and Compliance.
The second component of the grant will deal with the revitilisation of facilities and will fund strategic infrastructure projects. It has been allocated R4.6bn over the next three years.
The NHI has faced opposition from political parties who have threatened to take government to court if Ramaphosa signs the bill into law.
Business has described the NHI as unworkable, unconstitutional and unlawful.
Ramaphosa said he was still applying his mind on the bill, but he will sign it into law.
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