Portfolio committee marks four key health areas

The portfolio committee on health has four priorities for 2010:

• monitoring the private health care sector closely
• pushing for the National Health Insurance (NHI)
• regulating traditional healers and ensuring South Africa is ready for health emergencies during the World Cup

Chairman Bev Goqwana said yesterday that the committee would conduct an oversight study to understand what was happening in the private health care sector.

Questions have been raised over the years about how the private health care sector operates and particular concerns have been expressed about the way it charges for its services.

Goqwana said the committee was expecting the Department of Health to deliver a policy document on the proposed NHI next month. The NHI is a policy strategy aimed at providing universal cover for every citizen within five years.

"We are trying to make sure that it succeeds. We are listening to quite a few people from other countries who are sharing how they have done it, but South Africa is unique in that there are huge inequities in our health system and the NHI must address that."

The NHI implementation plan is expected to be ready by July.

On traditional healers, Goqwana said it was important to finalise the regulations that would govern the Traditional Health Practitioners Act, which recognises the healers as health professionals.

"Regulating this industry will help us to differentiate proper healers from those people who spring up from nowhere and claim to cure Aids and those who kill people because they want some body parts for muti," said Goqwana.

The act was signed by former president Thabo Mbeki four years ago. It makes it possible for healers to issue medical certificates and to claim from medical aid schemes. It prohibits the use of human tissue and advertisements.

Goqwana said the committee would check with provinces to ensure that everyone was ready for World Cup emergencies "so we don't become the laughing stock of the world".