On The National Health Bill

The Board of Healthcare Funders of Southern Africa supports the Minister of Health and the National Department of Health in developing and formulating legislation which provides for the establishment of a Bargaining Chamber, as it will, if executed appropriately, bring about transparency in pricing within the private healthcare environment.

We further hope that the parliamentary process will facilitate, in an objective and robust manner, the fine tuning of this legislation to achieve what is intended, i.e. fair and reasonable prices for relevant health services. The BHF will meaningfully participate in the process as we believe that the implementation will give rise to a downward pressure on the price of private healthcare, which in turn will have a knock-on effect on premiums paid by consumers. If this happens we would be addressing the issue of affordability and accessibility.

“It is clear that free market principles cannot apply in the private healthcare environment in South Africa. The elements which need to be in place for perfect competition do not exist. For example, in an environment of perfect competition, the consumer would have a choice of where to obtain a service; they would be in a position to assess the quality of the service and would have the power to buy or not to buy the service. This is exacerbated by a market where there is a private hospital oligopoly and a scarcity of specialist skills”, said Dr Humphrey Zokufa, MD of BHF

Over the past few years, the industry has been dogged by lack of transparency in prices for healthcare services, be they ward fees, theatre fees, prosthetics or healthcare technology, which has contributed to making private healthcare unaffordable to the average working person in South Africa.

The same lack of transparency applied to medicines until the government introduced the Single Exit Price legislation, which has resulted in an approximate 20% savings for consumers on medicines.

BHF estimated recently that the manner in which private hospital groups were charging for anaesthetic gasses resulted in over-charging of approximately R300 million per annum to consumers. The government has now stepped in, outlawing the previous pricing model and implementing a more accurate method of billing.

BHF therefore does not believe that transparency will be gained in the absence of a legal framework.

“There are no countries in the western world without a regulatory framework around pricing of healthcare. It is absolutely essential that the private sector sees itself as part of the entire healthcare solution and that together we demonstrate our ability to be the platform for a National Health Insurance system in South Africa”, said Dr Zokufa.

The Board of Healthcare Funders of Southern Africa is the representative body for 93% of medical schemes throughout South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho.

For further information, please contact Heidi Kruger, Head of Corporate Communications on 011 5370237, 0829051161 or Heidik@bhfglobal.com