SAPA,

KWAZULU-Natal Finance MEC Zweli Mkhize has said that the proposed National Health Insurance Bill was not an attempt to rid the country of the private health sector. Delivering the closing address at the Conference of the Board of Healthcare Funders in Durban, Mkhize said the challenge was to try and create a particular kind of partnership between private and government sectors which would ultimately improve health resources across the spectrum. Abolishing private healthcare was not the way the country wished to move, said Mkhize who is also a National Executive Council member in the ruling African National Congress. He said the African National Congress' Polokwane conference at the end of 2007 had looked back at what had been achieved and "the gaps" of the past 15 years. He said that looking at the United Nations millennium development goals, the ANC did not think the country was doing very well and did not believe that SA would be able to achieve those targets. Mkhize pointed to rising infant mortality rates as well as incidents of tuberculosis, including the drug resistant strains. Public institutions were faced with a loss of staff from public hospitals due to immigration as well as movement into the private sector. Mkhize, who was the KZN health MEC between 1994 and 2004, said the increasing costs within the private health sector as well as the declining percentage of the population covered by the private health sector were a concern. Further investment was needed in health infrastructure, especially public facilities, so that they would be able to compete with the private sector. Mkhize told delegates that the NHI was not about a socialist ideology, but rather a simple matter of affordability. He concluded by saying he would like to see more people in lower income brackets being covered by medical aid schemes.