DA challenges Minister to public debate on NHI

Mike Waters, Shadow Minister of Health
11 June 2009

The Democratic Alliance (DA) challenges ANC Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to a public debate on the proposed National Health Insurance scheme. This plan has the potential to devastate South Africa's healthcare system, and make it even more difficult for all South Africans, and the poor in particular, to access quality healthcare.
 
It is completely unacceptable that something with such profound consequences for healthcare for everyone is being negotiated behind closed doors, and will be presented to the country as a done deal. We therefore ask that, at a time and a place decided on by the Minister, these issues get publicly aired.
 
The DA's position is that adding more layers of bureaucracy to the health system will only make healthcare more inaccessible to all. Visits to hospitals will be limited, and approvals for some treatments will have to be filtered through a state bureaucracy. At the same time this will come at such a high cost that it is likely to destroy jobs and damage our economy.