National health insurance

A very detailed extensive presentation made by the Acting Director General Professor Nicholas Crisp on this in the main quite upset by the reporting saying that it was um very inaccurate and had ignored information that the department had provided to try to explain this expenditure but in the main mandy the department not denying that it's been shifting money around to be able to launch these advertising campaigns minister aaron mozzaledi says he's unapologetic about the fact that the department needs to advertise to encourage citizens to live a healthy life.

This is not just about the National Health Insurance, the billboards that we see on our highways, et cetera, are to encourage people to make wise health choices.

And this is something the department has to do.

But he hasn't denied that funds have been moved around.

And they say this is because of, you will remember, the dubious Digital Vibes contract of 2019, which was essentially a campaign campaign to advertise the National Health Insurance.

And then because of the timing of all of it, it morphed into a COVID-19 awareness campaign.

And all the troubles that came with that, the department says they have not had a dedicated budget to do the kind of communication that they need to do on the scale that they feel that they need to do it.

In his address, President Mahama instructed the Ministry of Health and key stakeholders to fully support the mission's operations.

He emphasized that these efforts align with his administration's broader commitment to expanding free primary health care, strengthening the National Health Insurance Scheme, thus supporting families managing chronic conditions through the Ghana Medical Trust Fund.

Moving on to the next story, private legal practitioner Agambiri Williams has called on Ghanaian teachers to continue their ongoing strike until their demands are met, urging them to resist pressure to call off the action prematurely.

In a Facebook post, Williams highlighted the stark economic disparity between teachers and former educators who have transitioned into political appointments, such as district chief executive and members of parliament.

Let's move on to our next story.

And this is concerning a bit of scandal around the National Health Insurance, or at least an advertising campaign for it, which is being attacked by the health minister, Aaron Mozzoledi, and his deputy, Joe Bartlett.

who said they are going to approach the Special Investigative Unit and the Auditor General and the Public Protector to probe a R182 million national health insurance communication contract that were reported on by News 24.

The department awarded these two contracts for marketing the promotion of various health campaigns including the NHI, which was listed as these campaigns were costed to be R1,620 for one contract and R540 per transaction, and that these two came to R182 million in total.

payments to pay for this.

In modern Bismarckian systems, private organizations pay for and deliver the care, but everything is tightly regulated by the government.

Then somewhere between the beverage model and the Bismarck model, we have the national health insurance model.

The national health insurance model is similar to the beverage model in that the government is the one paying for medical care.

However, like the Bismarck model, private organizations deliver it.

we see this model used primarily in Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea.

Now to health news.

Taiwan's National Health Insurance budget is set to exceed one trillion New Taiwan dollars for the first time next year, after negotiators reached a consensus for a second straight year.

The total will grow five point five percent, the maximum allowed, in what marks a third consecutive year of high-estimate budgeting.

The Western Medicine Primary Care segment will receive an additional ten point two billion New Taiwan dollars.

So while the CMS oversees and regulates the environment within the scope of the Medical Schemes Act, it's still up to medical schemes to ensure, you know, just, um, administrative efficiencies that promote value for the members.

Dr. Ayiluwu, let's take a closer look at the National Health Insurance aspect of this conversation.

The prescribed minimum benefits are very much alike with what is being proposed from a National Health Insurance perspective in terms of having basic coverage for every South African.

In reviewing these prescribed minimum benefits for medical schemes as they stand, does that then p- bring us in closer alignment with national health coverage? Is that perhaps a different conversation that needs to be had with medical schemes around perhaps coming up with a package that has the prescribed minimum benefits that then becomes the affordable package that we translate into the NHI? How do we start to merge these two worlds that we've been perhaps struggling to merge up to this point?

Mm-hmm.

So yes, it's a very good question, and we do believe that these reforms that we're putting forward will help ease the pressures on member households in terms of lowering healthcare contributions and decreasing out-of-pocket payments.

But we, we must remember that these reforms will form a stepping stone to increasing coverage and decreasing costs, but will ultimately be superseded by the planned rollout of the National Health Insurance in its aim for progressive realization of universal health coverage, where medical schemes are only envisioned to offer complementary services.

But until such time, we at the CMS are committed to working very hard to help improve these pressures and keeping the beneficiaries at the s- uh, the center of decision-making, all while ensuring the sustainability of the medical schemes industry.

Dr. Parker, this is what I need.

I need that national health insurance to kick in ASAP.

I need greater access to health care.

Hey, this hospital is dilapidated.

It is sectoral dialogues and word-based dialogues.

We're doing world-based dialogues with the aim of engaging with society around provision of health.

South Africa has introduced the National Health Insurance, which is being challenged in court.

Over the past five years or so, the president also created what is called the Presidential Health Compact.