By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Presidency announced the postponement of the signing of the Second Presidential Health Compact to August 22, with Business Unity South Africa (Busa) stating its objection to the Compact.
The signing was initially scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Stakeholders expected to sign the compact include the president, health minister Aaron Motsoaledi and representatives of business, civil society, labour, healthcare professionals, healthcare users, statutory health councils, academic and research organisations and public health entities, as well as traditional and allied health practitioners.
The compact aims to address key challenges in the national health system.
Following the postponement, Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) CEO Cas Coovadia revealed there had been concerns about the emphasis on National Health Insurance (NHI) within the draft.
Coovadia said the organisation could not support a policy that explicitly endorsed the NHI Act in its current form, noting that it had written to the President Cyril Ramaphosa to express its concern.
The NHI Act was signed into law by Ramaphosa on May 15 but has yet to be brought into effect.
Coovadia said the draft of the Compact that was shared with Busa promoted the NHI in its current form as the foundation underpinning healthcare reform.
He noted serious differences between business and government as to the appropriateness of the NHI Act.
“…let alone its feasibility as a legislative instrument to underpin universal health coverage,” he said.
Coovadia explained that Busa believed the NHI Act needed to be amended to ensure that the country was able to deliver healthcare reform and advance universal health coverage without damaging the economy and the existing skills, innovation, resources and experience that reside in the private healthcare sector.
“The country should be leveraging these resources to help design and support a system that is fit for purpose and that is able to benefit future generations,” he said.
Coovadia pointed out that business supported the 2018 Presidential Health Summit Compact, particularly its focus on immediate opportunities for health improvement, including strengthening supply chain management, health infrastructure planning, accountability, augmenting health system resources, as well as the principle of collaboration in healthcare delivery.
He explained that the references to NHI in the original Compact were minimal and only in the context of longer-term planning.
Many fear that the NHI, if implemented in its current form, could lead to the collapse of the healthcare system.
Coovadia stressed that while universal health coverage is widely supported, alternative methods to achieve it should be explored rather than pursuing an “unaffordable, unworkable, and unconstitutional” NHI model.
Legal challenges are already in the works from the trade union Solidarity, the Health Funders’ Association, the South African Medical Association, the Board of Healthcare Funders, the South African Health Professionals Collaboration and the Democratic Alliance (DA).