Hon Speaker and hon members, South Africa has massive inequalities that require policy change if we are to give our people a better life. We are one of the countries with the highest inequality in the world.
The health sector contributes significantly to a country's inequality status. Therefore, one of our greatest priorities as a nation must be the achievement of universal health coverage, where all our people have equal access to quality health care. This is essential for the achievement of a better quality of life for all South Africans, and it is also important for social justice, equity and a more productive economy.
We have also signed, as a country, the sustainable development agenda which calls for the introduction of universal health coverage. We are heading out to New York to the United Nations general Assembly meetings to join other countries that are moving towards the implementation of their own version of universal health coverage. As part of our global commitment, we attended and contributed our input at the G20 summit in Osaka in Japan in June this year.
At the summit, we, together with low and medium income countries, were urged to move towards universal health coverage for our countries, and this matter was put on the agenda by the Prime Minister of Japan in the midst of all these other G20 countries. We are on track to do this in our country through the National Health Insurance, NHI, and we have global support in moving towards universal health coverage.
The Elders Group, established by the Former President Nelson Mandela, has issued a statement in support of our efforts towards National Health Insurance. The Elders Group is a group of elders who used to be presidents and heads of state in various countries around the world.
Furthermore, the World Health Organisation is greatly supportive of our efforts to introduce universal health coverage, which has been a fundamental demand of the Freedom Charter for over 50 years. It is for this reason that we are pursuing an ambitious programme to address the problems in our health system alongside the introduction of the National Health Insurance.
Last month, we signed a Presidential Health Compact, which provides a comprehensive and detailed programme to improve our public health system. This historic compact was developed together with all key stakeholders in the health sector including health professionals, health organisations, labour, business, statutory councils, civil society and the users of the health system and academia.
Each stakeholder is committed to practical measures to strengthen the health system. This is essential if we are to ensure that each clinic, each community health centre and hospital in the public and private sector is NHI-ready. The NHI Fund, which we are going to be setting up and set out in the Bill that is now going to come to Parliament, will contract only those hospitals and clinics that meet international quality standards. This approach implies that we will be undertaking measures to strengthen the health system as we implement the NHI.
We are focusing our improvements in human resources, access to medicines and vaccines, building and maintenance of
infrastructure and the safety and quantity of health services. We are working together with stakeholders to improve financial management and strengthen governance, oversight and accountability.
A vital component of this plan is to ensure that the national health information system guides the way policies, strategies and investments are made. Once passed into law, the National Health Insurance Bill, which will become an Act, will go a long way towards achieving universal quality health coverage. We will join a community of nations that are moving towards ending inequality in access to quality health care.
In South Africa, we are confronting severe inequalities where around R250 billion is spent on the 16% of the population who have access to private health care, while only R220 billion goes towards health care for the rest of the population. But the interesting thing is that even those who are covered by private health care, when their allowances come to an end in their medical aids, they are the first to run to the public health
care system. They go there for vaccines and a whole number of other requirements.
There are those who say we must leave things as they are, and by the way, this 16% gets rebates from the government. Therefore, the government subsidises even those who say they have private health care coverage.
We are called upon to retain an unjust system that deprives the majority of South Africans access to the doctors, specialists, allied health professionals that are supposed to serve only a few to the exclusion of the rest. To this we have to say a unanimous "no". This is unfair, inefficient and unsustainable.
We have enough resources in this country to give every man, woman and child health care, but we refuse because we want to promote interests of a few to the detriment of the rest. We shall change this and we are irrevocably committed to changing this.
Implementing the National Health Insurance while improving the health system has several benefits. The NHI will increase the resources available to hire more health workers, thus reducing waiting times in hospitals and in clinics. Contracting health professionals from the private sector into NHI will increase access to the services of doctors, specialists, dentists, physiotherapists, psychologists and many others.
Through the more efficient allocation of health resources, the NHI will improve access to medicines and equipment, reduce drug stock-outs and improve maintenance of facilities. The NHI Fund will separate the purchase of health services from the delivery of services, thereby increasing value for money. It will help to ensure that funds, staff, medicine and equipment are more fairly distributed. It will further enhance the quality of services delivered because all those who receive contracts will be able to provide services of a specified quality. It will also help improve efficiency, transparency and accountability.
As we have done before with all major policy interventions since 1994, we will ensure effective consultation and engagement
across society at all stages of this process. The quest for universal health coverage is probably one of the most significant public-private partnerships that we will undertake, and it is essential that all social partners are involved in its design and implementation. It will be implemented incrementally and within available resources.
The NHI provides an opportunity to fundamentally transform the health care system in this country to ensure greater fairness, improved health outcomes and a more productive workforce. Through the NHI, we will be closer to achieving the demand that was set out by our forebears in the Freedom Charter that; "Free medical care and hospitalisation shall be provided for all." Working together, we are determined to achieve this goal.
I had the occasion to listen to the Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, before he was assassinated when he told me that the first Prime Minister of their country had ended up in a public hospital. He had had a medical procedure and he was in a ward that accommodated some four or six people.
The following day somebody came and lay in the bed next to his. They started conversing and he asked him: "What do you do for a living?" He answered: "I am a steel worker and I work in a steel mill somewhere". And the then Prime Minister, Erlander was his name, then said, "I want to tell you something my friend. This is exactly what we were working to achieve; that you, as a steel worker, can come into a hospital and lie next to me as a Prime Minister of this country and both of us can get exactly the same medical healthcare." [Applause.]
This is precisely what this is about; we want to improve and revolutionise our health care. This is something that we hope to achieve and it is for this reason that the NHI is being piloted and directed from the President's office. We are going to make sure that the NHI does get implemented and the Bill will be coming to Parliament and we hope that this House is going to revolutionise health care delivery in our country and in our lifetime. Thank you very much. [Applause.]