National health insurance on the cards, says Zuma

The African National Congress (ANC) plans to introduce national health insurance in its next term in government, party president Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.

“The NEC [National Executive Committee] set up a sub-committee to work on this plan ... and even costed it,” Zuma told a business breakfast in Johannesburg.

The ANC had made plans for national health insurance before the global financial crisis hit, but the party remained determined to put the plan into action.

“We have looked at it, how we are going to do it.

Certainly it might not be at a level that it was if there was no economic crisis, but we believe we can do it,” Zuma said.

“It’s a national imperative and we have got to do it, we have to find the resources for it.”

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) “mocked” the plan, saying it was “pre-election evergreen”.

“The ANC has been promising a national health insurance scheme ahead of every election since 1994,” IFP KwaZulu-Natal premier candidate Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi said in a statement.

“Instead of delivering one, their health policies have devastated state hospitals and aggravated the scope of the HIV/Aids pandemic.”

Asking Zuma to elaborate on the plan, an audience member called it a “socialist dream”.

The ANC was looking beyond the elections and planning its next term in government, Zuma said, with the incoming administration set to make changes to Cabinet portfolios. Some portfolios would be split and there would a planning committee in the presidency to oversee the government and its functions.

Malose Sepeng, a member of the audience, was impressed with Zuma’s address, saying he “covered a lot of ground”.

“He answered all the questions in a forthright way. Overall I felt quite happy with a lot of the responses that he made,” he said.

Saki Du Plessis, another audience member, disagreed, saying Zuma’s address was “nothing new”.

“Nothing new ... I expected more. On affirmative action, the statement he made actually goes against legislation because my understanding of the BEE legislation is that there should be a definite time frame and he’s saying there shouldn’t put any time frames to that ... I find that strange,” he said.

Zuma, responding to a question about how long government’s affirmative action policy would last, said the policy was intended to redress imbalances of the past. He did not think there should be any time limit on it.—Sapa