By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The health department’s deputy director-general for National Health Insurance (NHI), Nicholas Crisp, says to label the NHI as corrupt or a failure before it even has the chance to launch is unfair.
NHI Bill was recently passed by the National Council of Provinces and sent on to President Cyril Ramaphosa to be signed into law.
The new laws have been met with fierce backlash from the private healthcare sector, with many professionals, business groups, medical aids and other key stakeholders feeling completely ignored in the process – especially given that the bill would effectively cement the end of private health insurance and hamstring private hospitals and practices.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, however, Crisp said that health sector entities tend to be the exception to this, noting that entities such as the South African Medical Research Council and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority were run competently and successfully.
“To criticise an agency that has not yet been established, let alone operationalised, is definitely premature,” he said.
He said the NHI Fund will be run transparently and efficiently. He also said that most issues raised about the NHI are premature because the regulations – which are still being drafted and will be published much later, after the NHI Fund and foundational laws have already been put into effect – will detail what happens next.
These regulations will have to be published for three months and go through the standard public comment and participation processes.
Notably, the ANC-led majority in the portfolio committee, National Assembly and NCOP pushed the NHI Bill forward – even against feedback and proposed changes from the private sector and even the health department itself – so this will be little comfort to those who stand opposed to the bill.
As the defacto “showrunner” of the NHI in the health department, Crisp has long pushed back against the scheme’s critics, defending the bill every step of the way.
He has maintained that critics of the scheme are fighting against a process that will take years, if not decades, to fully implement and fully realise, applying concerns about healthcare today to solutions that will only be realised in 15 to 30 years.