Health Dept says recent court ruling scrapping parts of health legislation has no effect on NHI
The ruling still needs to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court but some say the sections are central to the State's plans for the NHI.
JOHANNESBURG - The Health Department has slammed suggestions that a recent High Court ruling scrapping sections of the National Health Act, has dealt a massive blow to the National Health Insurance (NHI).
Earlier this week, the High Court in Pretoria declared as invalid unimplemented sections of the act relating to the controversial Certificate of Need (CoN) scheme, which would require the State to approve the locations of healthcare facilities.
The ruling still needs to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court but some say the sections are central to the state's plans for the NHI and critics have celebrated it against this backdrop.
But the department says this isn't the case.
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The department in a statement has defended the CoN scheme, emphasising that the sections in question “were drafted 20 years before the NHI Act” and “have nothing to do with the NHI”.
It further labelled it “mischief” and “part of [a] deliberate campaign to discredit the NHI” to link the two.
It's pointed to various other countries, which employ some or other version of a CoN scheme and said “some of them do not have NHI or any form of universal health coverage”.
It also said the aim of the scheme is simply to “regulate the quality and standard of healthcare” and to determine whether plans for facilities in certain areas are appropriate.