NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE BILL UPDATE

NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE BILL UPDATE

• 29 May 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

A report has been tabled in the House on the process followed by the National Assembly’s Health Committee in determining the constitutionality of the National Health Insurance Bill, among other things. This is in anticipation of a second reading on the Bill and its transmission to the NCOP for concurrence.

The report includes a minority view in the form of a legal opinion tabled by the committee’s Freedom Front Plus representative, Phillippus van Staden. This opinion was sought in the light of apparently conflicting views on the Bill’s constitutionality provided by the Office of the State Law Adviser and Parliamentary Legal Services.

A ‘B’ version of the Bill was tabled with the report. It incorporates amendments reflected in an ‘A’ list adopted by majority vote. Both documents were rejected by committee members representing the Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters and Freedom Front Plus.

Introduced in August 2019, the Bill seeks to establish a national health insurance fund that, once fully operationalised, is expected to:

• provide ‘universal protection against financial risk’
• equitably distribute the financial burden entailed, and
• facilitate equitable access to quality health care services that are efficiently administered in a well governed health care system.

For more information, please click the links below:

• Bill (‘B’ version, incorporating the ‘A’ list’)
• ‘A’ list of amendments made to the original version
• committee report

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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