Chairperson, if hon Waters wants me to pass on his message to the general- secretary of the SACP about the issue of war on the NHI, I will be happy to do that. I am here as the Minister of Health. [Laughter.]
I think that the DA needs to play by the rules. What you are trying to do, in essence, is to say that we can't commit to a national health insurance scheme unless we have costed it. But how does one do a full-blown costing without having had consultations with South Africa? That would be a waste of energy and time.
Through the initial work that the department has done, we are convinced that a national health insurance system is important. We have done and are busy doing comparative studies, not least with the United States of America, by the way, and other countries like Ghana that have actually implemented a national health insurance system. We are convinced that given where we are, we will actually be able to afford it.
Still on the issue of affordability, even the range of services in the basket that will be covered by the NHI are some of the things we still have to consult about.
Therefore, it is very unfair of the DA to ask for something like this when we know that they are working with some private providers to do some kind of costing so that they can compare figures. You can bring your own costing as well. We will be happy to look at your costing when we begin to discuss it openly. Thank you very much, Chair. [Applause.].