SACP STATEMENT ON THE LAUNCH OF NHI PILOTS

The SACP welcomes the launch of the NHI Pilot Programme announced by the Minister of Health on Thursday, 22 March 2012, targeting 11 Districts across the country.

The SACP has for years campaigned tirelessly for the introduction of the National Health insurance. The NHI is very critical in entrenching a health system that places quality of life at the centre as opposed to profit. Preventative health interventions as opposed to treatment is the cornerstone of the NHI.

This means building a health system that does not rely on getting more people to be sick but that relies on preventing them to get sick. The NHI therefore is not merely about the abolition of user fees, important as this is to the campaign.

The implementation of the pilot programme signals government's commitment to deliver on its Manifesto commitments. This is indeed  a majorbreakthrough in the field of health, away from a commitment to discredited neo-liberal policies that were implemented in the early days of our democracy. It is these kinds of policies that were imposed on our people that drained the capacity of our health system and under invested in training and infrastructure for health.

The SACP hopes with the refurbishment of nursing colleges this will assist us to address skill shortages in the health sector. We are hopeful that government will also engage with universities to eliminate opportunity hoarding and putting unnecessary admission requirements to suffocate the training of doctors. The SACP hopes  that government will include health and medical faculties in the new universities of Mpumalanga and Northern Cape in order to increase capacity to train doctors and other health professionals.

The SACP is aware that the NHI is a heavily contested matter and those with different class interests will seek to hijack it in order to turn the NHI into a possible tender harvesting terrain. We hope government will remain vigilant not to be sidetracked. The SACP is greatly worried by some elements in government that are pushing for a funding model that goes against the spirit and letter of the ANC 2010 NGC. These elements must be confronted by the progressive health movement for their attempts to water down this great breakthrough of our people.

Working with the trade union movement and other health organisations, the SACP will continue to campaign for the fast tacking of the deadlines and monitor that the implementation is successful.

Statement issued by the SACP, March 25 2012

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