27 January 2004
The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes the initiative by the Minister of Health to increase access to health insurance through the proposed establishment of the Risk Equalisation Fund (REF) into which all medical aids will make contributions in order to make cross-subsidisation possible. This will lay the basis for ensuring that basic health care is available to all and financed from a common pool of funds.
The Communist Party believes that the current system pertaining in the medical aid industry skews resources away from the public health sector to the private and for the benefit of a small number people whereas the majority depends on a smaller slice of finance for their health needs.
The Communist Party calls for fundamental transformation of the medical aid industry in our country in order to build an efficient and quality system of public health financing. The initiatives by Minister Tshabalala-Msimang on the REF and the proposed inititative on the reduction of prices of medicines are important first steps in this regard.
The Communist Party believes that the debate on a national health insurance vis-à-vis a social health insurance needs to be kept open in the interests of broad public input and participation, and in order to safeguard the model of publicly-funded, publicly-owned and democratically-controlled health insurance.