The ANC and the government of unity are unmoved on the contentious National Health Insurance (NHI) that was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2024.
This is according to ANC national executive committee member and Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi, who said among other major beneficiaries of the NHI will be pregnant women.
Motsoaledi said that despite the DA’s and other parties’ protestations against the NHI, universal healthcare will be a major relief to the poor, who have largely been left out in the cold when it comes to quality healthcare.
In an NHI regime, he said during a briefing at the ANC head office this week, the more than 1-million pregnant women who do not have medical aid will receive the same quality healthcare as their privileged counterparts.
Motsoaledi revealed shocking statistics: only 140 000 of about 1.2-million pregnant women who fall pregnant every year had access to medical aid.
As a result of this skewed access to quality healthcare, many poor women could not even afford a mere ultrasound scan during their pregnancy, which led to complications during labour.
With the NHI, Motsoaledi continued, all pregnant women will have access to a general practitioner at least four times and a specialist at least twice during their pregnancy to avoid unnecessary and preventable complications during labour.
Leveling the playing field
“There are 1.2-million women who fall pregnant every year. What are they entitled to? We want every pregnant woman, regardless of their economic status, to see a GP [general practitioner] at least four times during that pregnancy,” Motsoaledi said.
“They must also visit a specialist at least two times, but the number of times will be told by experts.
“We also want each pregnant woman to have an ultrasound scan. They will tell us whether it is two times or how many so that we know that these babies are normal.
“We are not going to promote wrong things, such as rushing to a doctor to pay a lot of money to see the sex of a child; how does that help?”
He continued: “We want to know if this baby is normal, what is the size of the head, and are the organs normal so as to avoid also medicolegal claims.
“That is what we want to do, and that we will do without apologising to anybody because all women in the country prefer that.
“The women who are on medical aid are receiving these things, and it is only 140 000 out of 1.2-million pregnant women every year. What about the 1 060-million women? Don’t they belong to South Africa?”
Motsoaledi said this was one of the areas wherein the NHI will level the playing field and end inequality.
He said: “So, we are moving on with NHI. If the judges come and tell us that we are wrong, then we will abide because we are law-abiding citizens. Up to now, no judge has told us that we are wrong.”
Learning defects in children
Motsoaledi said the NHI will also come in handy to detect learning defects in children from poor households.
In this regard, with grade R now compulsory, Motsoaledi said he had agreed with the DA’s Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, that all grade R kids must be tested for hearing and eyesight defects, among other things, to know who must be given special attention from the onset of their education.
“During the pilot of NHI, we realised that there are kids who go to school and cannot see very well or cannot hear very well, and no one, even the teachers, is aware of it. We have statistics.
“We took a decision that as of this year, utilising the concept of NHI, we are going to make sure that each child that goes to school is screened for eyesight, hearing, TB, and so on because we want to give them a chance in life because we have children of the rich people with medical aid, who are tested for these things. What about the children of the poor?
“We will finalise this plan, put the amounts, and say this is how much this will cost and then go to the National Treasury to ask for money.
“I have already told the minister of basic education, and she is so supportive. I do not know whether she told madam [DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille] about that.”
