Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said many public hospitals already attend to patients that have medical aid cover who preferred to be cared for in public hospitals.
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said there were no plans in place to repurpose portions of public hospitals into private sections that will care for those who have medical aid cover.
Motsoaledi said many public hospitals already attend to patients that have medical aid cover who preferred to be cared for in public hospitals.
“Currently there is no plan to repurpose portions of the public hospitals into private sections. Instead many public hospitals also attend to patients that have medical aid cover who prefer to be cared for in public hospitals. These patients get admitted to normal wards like all other patients without discrimination,” he said.
“There was an attempt previously to create private wards inside the public hospitals, which was counter-productive as doctors would bring their private patients and pay more attention to them at the expense of public patients.
“The current experience is that an increasing number of privately funded patients also seek care in public hospitals,” he said.
Motsoaledi made the statement when he was responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Sixolise Gcilishe, who asked whether the minister has considered repurposing portions of the public hospitals into private sections to be used by government employees so that billions of rand will circulate in the public sector.
Gcilishe posed the questions after Motsoaledi told Parliament when he tabled the department’s budget that the government paid R71 billion per annum for its 1.3 million employees to access private hospitals that competed with public hospitals.
Defending the National Health Insurance in July, Motsoaeldi said there were areas that needed to be ironed out.
“We hear a lot that the money supporting private healthcare is private money, that comes only from pockets of individuals, and that the State has no business meddling with it. Really?”
He had said the government subsidised private healthcare for the rich in a way unimaginable.
“A total of 1.3 million public servants, plus all Members of Parliament and legislatures, and all judges of our country, are subsidized by the fiscus, to the tune of R70 billion per annum.
“This is done by subsidising them individually in the medical schemes they have joined. Any person in our country who is on medical aid, regardless of who they work for, receives tax rebates from SARS. I am made to understand that these tax rebates amount to approximately R30bn.”
Motsoaledi had argued that no less than R100bn moved annually from the fiscus to subsidise the rich.
“We will have to start implementing NHI in phases, as we are already in Phase 2. The rest of the building blocks of health will easily fall into place,” he said.
Cape Times
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