Most of the opposition parties on Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health have opposed the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, citing the probability of tender corruption and looting, as well as the unconstitutionality of the document, with only the ANC and IFP voicing their support for it.
The Cape Argus reports that at a meeting at which committee chairperson Dr Kenneth Jacobs (ANC) gave members a chance to deliberate on the legal opinion presented by the state law advisers and parliamentary legal services, DA health spokesperson Michele Clarke said her party rejected the Bill. She said it presented numerous issues which would be tested in the Constitutional Court when it was passed using the ANC’s parliamentary majority.
She described it as having been “thrown together haphazardly without proper and due consideration of all material facts and circumstances in which South Africa finds itself”, and would be a target for tender corruption and the looting of funds.
It would, she added, do exactly the opposite of what was was trying to achieve, “bringing a total collapse of the healthcare sector and the ushering in another form of state capture… being the sole provider of the service to the public”.
Philip van Staden (Freedom Front Plus) said his party would not support the Bill, and because it excludes asylum seekers and undocumented foreigners from healthcare service coverage, could lead to a constitutional challenge.
The EFF’s Naledi Chirwa said the Bill maintained the current two-tier system, which did not reflect the EFF’s aspirations of a socialist country.
Cape Argus PressReader article – Committee hears of NHI Bill pitfalls (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Submissions: NHI Bill has serious constitutional and human rights implications
Little of the criticism of the NHI Bill is ‘constructive’
More time for MPs to discuss NHI Bill
Conflicting legal views present another hurdle in NHI Bill discussions