The cabinet has asked the Treasury and the Department of Health to consolidate their proposals for National Health Insurance (NHI) into a single document that would be published before the end of the financial year‚ the Treasury indicated this week.Until now‚ the two departments had been working on separate but linked documents. Health has drafted a white paper outlining the policy‚ while the Treasury has been working on the financial aspects.
NHI is the biggest structural health reform yet proposed by the government‚ and is intended to tackle deep inequalities in access to services.
“It’s almost complete‚” Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile said shortly before Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene delivered his medium-term budget policy statement to parliament.
“Health had worked on the policy that would underpin NHI‚ and ... we had developed financing options. The last meeting of cabinet agreed to combine the papers. And then it will be out for public comment‚” he said.
Fuzile declined to be drawn on the details of the Treasury’s proposals‚ saying only that the three previously indicated financing options were still on the table‚ namely a payroll tax‚ corporate income tax and VAT.
In line with the Treasury’s commitment to protect the poor‚ spending on social services such as health‚ education and welfare grants has been protected.
Consolidated health expenditure over the medium-term is set to increase slightly‚ with additions largely focused on tackling HIV/Aids. In addition to expanding treatment‚ which now reaches more than three million patients‚ the government plans to scale up prevention strategies and must offset an expected reduction in support from the US in 2018. Resources are also required for plans to improve primary healthcare and the management of medicines.
The Treasury has revised its estimated consolidated health expenditure for 2015-2016 up to R157.7-billion‚ and is projecting expenditure will increase from R169.7-billion in 2016-2017 to R184.7-billion in 2017-2018 and R200.6-billion in 2018-2019‚ an average annual increase of 8.3% in nominal terms.
The February budget projected consolidated health expenditure would rise from R157.3-billion in 2015-2016 to R177.5-billion in 2017-2018‚ an average annual increase of 7.1%.
From next year, the HIV/Aids and tuberculosis programmes were likely to be integrated into a single programme‚ Treasury chief director for health and social development Mark Blecher said.
The government said in February it expected to provide treatment to 4.8 million HIV-positive patients by 2017-2018.
The medium-term budget indicated the Treasury’s support for an electronic medicines stock management system that would enable the national and provincial health departments to monitor inventory‚ to reduce the risk of shortages at hospitals. At least two-thirds of clinics still had manual stock cards‚ Blecher said.
The Treasury said it would increase the social assistance budget by R13-billion over the medium term to accommodate an increase in grant recipients and ensure the grants kept pace with inflation.
There are currently 16.7 million beneficiaries‚ and the figure is expected to reach 18.1 million recipients by the fiscal year 2018-2019‚ largely due to higher life expectancy and a push to ensure all eligible children under the age of two benefited from the grant.
Several welfare grants will increase by R10 a month from this month‚ to bring their annual increase in line with inflation.
Cabinet insists on one NHI document
Until now‚ the two departments had been working on separate but linked documents. Health has drafted a white paper outlining the policy‚ while the Treasury has been working on the financial aspects.
NHI is the biggest structural health reform yet proposed by the government‚ and is intended to tackle deep inequalities in access to services.
“It’s almost complete‚” Treasury director-general Lungisa Fuzile said shortly before Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene delivered his medium-term budget policy statement to parliament.
“Health had worked on the policy that would underpin NHI‚ and ... we had developed financing options. The last meeting of cabinet agreed to combine the papers. And then it will be out for public comment‚” he said.
Fuzile declined to be drawn on the details of the Treasury’s proposals‚ saying only that the three previously indicated financing options were still on the table‚ namely a payroll tax‚ corporate income tax and VAT.
In line with the Treasury’s commitment to protect the poor‚ spending on social services such as health‚ education and welfare grants has been protected.
Consolidated health expenditure over the medium-term is set to increase slightly‚ with additions largely focused on tackling HIV/Aids. In addition to expanding treatment‚ which now reaches more than three million patients‚ the government plans to scale up prevention strategies and must offset an expected reduction in support from the US in 2018. Resources are also required for plans to improve primary healthcare and the management of medicines.
The Treasury has revised its estimated consolidated health expenditure for 2015-2016 up to R157.7-billion‚ and is projecting expenditure will increase from R169.7-billion in 2016-2017 to R184.7-billion in 2017-2018 and R200.6-billion in 2018-2019‚ an average annual increase of 8.3% in nominal terms.
The February budget projected consolidated health expenditure would rise from R157.3-billion in 2015-2016 to R177.5-billion in 2017-2018‚ an average annual increase of 7.1%.
From next year, the HIV/Aids and tuberculosis programmes were likely to be integrated into a single programme‚ Treasury chief director for health and social development Mark Blecher said.
The government said in February it expected to provide treatment to 4.8 million HIV-positive patients by 2017-2018.
The medium-term budget indicated the Treasury’s support for an electronic medicines stock management system that would enable the national and provincial health departments to monitor inventory‚ to reduce the risk of shortages at hospitals. At least two-thirds of clinics still had manual stock cards‚ Blecher said.
The Treasury said it would increase the social assistance budget by R13-billion over the medium term to accommodate an increase in grant recipients and ensure the grants kept pace with inflation.
There are currently 16.7 million beneficiaries‚ and the figure is expected to reach 18.1 million recipients by the fiscal year 2018-2019‚ largely due to higher life expectancy and a push to ensure all eligible children under the age of two benefited from the grant.
Several welfare grants will increase by R10 a month from this month‚ to bring their annual increase in line with inflation.
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