Honourable Members,
The National Health Insurance is South Africa’s way to implement Universal Health Coverage as designed by the World Health Organization and adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly.
Since the assent to the NHI Act, the Department of Health has been busy with a range of preparatory work.
This includes procedures for the registration of people who are going to use NHI, and the accreditation framework and contracting arrangements for healthcare establishments and providers.
We are also rolling out the digital systems that are required to trace a patient between different doctors, service providers, healthcare workers and health facilities – whether in the public or private sectors.
The digital systems include a Health Patient Registration System directly linked to the Department of Home Affairs population register, and an Electronic Medical Record that will roll out across more than 3,500 public healthcare facilities over the next 15 months.
Practical interventions to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare include significant investments in infrastructure, including rebuilding old hospitals and building some new hospitals, health centres and clinics.
This is taking place alongside measures to improve hospital governance.
The national and provincial Departments of Health are also focusing on employment of doctors, other health professionals and community health workers.
As government, we have agreed not to proclaim any sections of the NHI Act until the Constitutional Court has handed down its judgment in legal challenges due to be heard at the beginning of May 2026.
The challenges that will be heard by the Constitutional Court relate to the public participation process that led to the adoption of the NHI Bill by Parliament.
We made this undertaking to ensure that the other legal challenges to the NHI Act, which have been brought on other grounds, are managed in an orderly manner that does not cause prejudice to any party,
This undertaking, which has been made an Order of Court,will not affect the timetable for the implementation of the NHI, nor will it stop the work currently underway towards implementation of the NHI.
The NHI aims to establish a single national fund that will allow for the equitable purchasing of health services from public and private healthcare providers. This will enable the whole population to access all the potential health resourcesin the country.
The changes brought about by the NHI are complex and far-reaching.
As provided for in the transitional provisions of the Act, these measures need to be undertaken gradually, using a progressive and programmatic approach based on the availability of financial resources.
We are determined to ensure that every South African has equal access to quality health care regardless of their ability to pay.
This is a commitment we are not prepared to move away from.
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