National Health Insurance Bill

The FF Plus is seriously worried about the negative impact that the tabling of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill in Parliament last Thursday has since had on the country’s economy.

It is not only the Discovery group’s shares that fell on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Yesterday, an amount of R14 billion was lost in terms of the value of health care shares on the Exchange. This sharp decrease in the value of shares has occurred due to the uncertainty and negative sentiments surrounding the Bill.

According to media reports, the companies that have suffered the greatest losses are Afrocentric Health, Momentum Shed, Discovery and Adcock Ingram.

The FF Plus is of the opinion that this trend could spill over to other listed health companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and that will drastically weaken South Africa’s economy.

It could also put the future of the employees of these companies in jeopardy seeing as e
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Government does not believe it can wait until the healthcare system is improved before implementing national health insurance, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said.

The minister was speaking at a briefing at Tuynhuys, Parliament, where the report of the outcomes of the presidential health summit, held late last year, was released.

During his address on Tuesday, Motsoaledi said government would be taking significant steps towards implementing universal healthcare.

Last week, president Cyril Ramaphosa said that the National Health Insurance Bill would be tabled before Parliament this year.

NHI will ensure that South Africans can receive free health services at the point of care at both public and private quality-accredited healthcare service providers, Motsoaledi said.

NHI is a proposed state-run health financing system that aims to pool funds to provide access to quality health services for all South Africans regardless of thei
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