Finance minister Enoch Godongwana says the government has not updated the cost model of the proposed National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since the 2019/2020 financial year. Responding in a written parliamentary question and answer session, Godongwana said this means the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not been factored into the cost model for the scheme. The most recent data, published in section 8 of the explanatory memorandum to the NHI Bill and the 2019 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, modelled the medium-term cost of specific NHI interventions at over USD2,000,000 per annum by the fifth year. The Minister responded the following about updates to the cost model.
“The need for and timing of further updates to the model will be determined by practical progress with preparing for the implementation of NHIS, spending on the existing NHIS allocations, as well as progress with processing the NHIS bill in the two chambers and relevant committees of parliament.”
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