Health E news - 30 Oct 2019
"Five things that the midterm budget tells us about the future of health Finance Minister Tito delivers the 2018 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in parliament. (Photo Credit: Elmond Jioyane, GCIS)
South Africa spends about 8.5% of its gross domestic profit on health services.
National finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered his mid-term budget speech on Wednesday afternoon. Despite slow economic growth, the health sector continues to receive one of the biggest slices of the country’s budget. We round up five things that the midterm budget tells us about the state of healthcare and its future.
1. More money for the National Health Insurance
The National Health Insurance (NHI) bill was tabled in Parliament earlier this year. The bill is South Africa’s policy on providing universal healthcare. When introducing the bill to Parliament, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that the NHI will be fully implemented by 2026. Treasury estimates that rolling out the NHI would require an additional R33 billion annually from the beginning of the 2025/26 financial year. It says that the current economic climate rules out previous cost predictions that were in the white and green papers of the bill.
Treasury also says that provinces will receive a special fund to contract health professionals in pilot NHI districts."
Read more:
https://health-e.org.za/2019/10/30/mtbps2019-medium-term-budget-policy-statement-2019-nhi-health/
