PRETORIA – South Africa will take a fiscally responsible approach to introducing universal health coverage, raising annual spending on a new National Health Insurance (NHI) programme gradually to 33 billion rand ($2.2 billion) by 2025/26, a top presidential aide said.
Olive Shisana, special advisor to President Cyril Ramaphosa on social policy, told Reuters in an interview: “This government is not going to do something that will collapse the economy. (The plan) is for gradual, incremental implementation in a fiscally responsible manner.”
NHI is the cornerstone of government plans to fix a health system in crisis. Some analysts and opposition politicians have questioned its affordability.
Spending on the programme has been budgeted at 2.5 billion rand by fiscal 2019/20, its year of operation. South Africa’s financial year starts on April 1.
($1 = 15.1617 rand)
(Reuters)