This sounds like another of those bad late night infomercials. Recession getting you down? Battling to make ends meet? Money too tight to mention? Well, have we got just the right product for you. Yes, folks, this is another one time offer, in addition to paying the taxes to support 40 million people, 13 million or so on welfare, we're going to throw in a National Health Insurance for you five million taxpayers to prop up.
And that's not all. Stay tuned as the great leader's pre-election tall promises begins to turn South Africa into a total socialist state.
Isn't it funny how pre-1994, a boycott and sanctions-plagued apartheid State managed to provide for and support the entire population with some of the world's finest healthcare but since 'liberation' the health service has all but ceased to function - despite the growing tax base? Obviously these are the racist policies of BEE and AA beginning to bear fruit. Rotten fruit that is.
This report is from the Sowetan which is normally so far up the guvmunt's arse, it has a permanent brown stain around its neck but even the thought that it may have to cough up the extra pennies to subsidise the poor is getting to these newly financially enfranchised.
***
NHI to hit hard on taxpayers and medical aid members. The government has finally admitted that the National Health Insurance would hit hard on taxpayers and members of medical aid schemes.
In simpler terms, it means that those who are working will pay more tax and their medical aid contributions will be raised, although it is still not clear by how much.
Despite enquiries yesterday, no one in government would say how much it would cost to roll out the NHI. Deputy Health Minister Molefi Sefularo said that “general tax revenues will form the core of the resources required to fund NHI”.
“But such funding would not be sufficient for the realisation of universal access to healthcare as envisaged in the National Health Insurance plan. “There would be other additional resources that would be mobilised, like medical aid schemes to complement the funds generated by tax revenues,” Sefularo said.
He was speaking at the two-day annual Hospital Association of South Africa conference in Durban. The theme for this year was “Together towards universal healthcare”.
Under the spotlight was the proposed NHI.
According to the Department of Health, the NHI is meant to create an efficient, equitable and sustainable health system for all South Africans.
At present the allocation of resources between the public and private health sectors is very skewed. The private sector, which serves about 7,5 million people (18 percent of the population) has more than 14,000 doctors on its payroll, while the public sector, which serves about 38 million people has less than 6,000 doctors.
Sefularo said: “The implementation of NHI will correct the ills in the health sector”. He added: “We need innovative ways to further expand access to, and improving the quality of healthcare service for all our people. The NHI is a tool towards the desired universal coverage. It also means better quality healthcare in the private and public sectors of a unitary health system”.
The private sector is, however, sceptical about the implementation of NHI.
Hein van Eck, health policy general manager at Medi-Clinic, said: “We support access to quality healthcare for all people, but we are concerned about how NHI would move towards this".
“We agree that the current system is not balanced. The private sector has more doctors than its patients, while the situation is totally different with the public institutions.
"The mystery is how government plans to balance the situation. Do they just throw everyone into the new system and hope that it works?” Van Eck asked.
He said it would be sensible for the government to test the waters by moving primary healthcare first, which includes antenatal, paediatrics, HIV, TB and malaria.
The NHI plan would be finalised by the end of June. Public comments would then be invited. Consultations will include all steps leading to the release of the White Paper on the NHI and the adoption of necessary laws.
‘Busa is in the dark’
The CEO OF Business Unity of South Africa Jerry Vilakazi, said the private sector is concerned about the funding for National Health Insurance as government delays the release of its draft policy.
“We are in the dark as to how much government is putting towards NHI and what assistance is needed from the private sector.
"We have learnt that general tax would be the core funding, but we are not sure how this would affect taxpayers. Already, revenue collection in this country has declined because of job losses due to the global financial crunch.
“It is therefore not possible to foretell if tax would increase and by what percentage.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHO SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE?
-
Seems this administration has been very busy releasing information that had
no businesses being released, to put it mildly. The past week has been
filled w...
48 minutes ago
7 Opinion(s):
Don't forget we have to foot Eskom's bill with a "once off" tax which once implemented, will take off like a Fibonacci number as regards frequency of imposition. Or the R10 billion or so that taxypayers need to cough up to get taxi drivers to cooperate with the R1 billion Bus Transit System.
Next thing is that tax rates are increased. Why is new Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, so quiet? As a highly effective ex-commissioner of SARS, he ain't sayin' nuttin'. Now why should that be? Because he knows that all of Zuma's promises are so much pie in the sky. I wonder how long Jakes will last before total anarchy breaks loose.
Yep, like all of the ANC's previous ill-thought out ideas, this one is right up there with the worst. And Jakes is too busy having a jol to be worrying about these things anyway. This is the Left pushing for this junk. We are going to meet a financial Armageddon in SA, that's fer sure. Something has to give.
Why does it surprise anybody that the ANC wants to screw up the private health system ? Screwing up things that is all this one trick ANC pony can do.
From time to time they need fresh material because how do you screw up things that are already stuffed beyond repair ( Army, Education , Eskom,Jails, Police, SABC... ).
Aha, found news from Pravin Gordhan the Sunday Times Business Section. He says revenue collection will decline for the next year or so. Of course that's not what Cosatu or the masses want to hear.
KAK en BETAAL
@ anon 6:21, absolutely right, Shakespeare couldn't put it better. I should have used those words in the heading, it says it all.
It is a possibility that government moves towards a one tier system, and outlaws private health. Their justification will be that the majority cannot experience inferior health services, when there is a privileged minority that receive first world treatment, which came about as a result of Apartheid. This, of course, will result in the collapse of health care. More importantly, JZ is probably going to cause a precipitous societal collapse. A lot of denialists don't see this as a possibility. But let's look at Zimbabwe. At their peak there were 200,000 whites. This was a very small number, and a number that was easily assimilated into SA society without causing any disruption. If JZ's policies cause a rapid decline, there will be a white (read as being the class that is First World functional) humanitarian disaster on a scale that the world would never have seen. Am I being melodramatic? I hope so.
Post a Comment