The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi to introduce an amendment to withdraw what it termed a “disastrous” law on the National Health Insurance (NHI) and said proper public consultations on achieving universal health care must follow.

The party said on Wednesday while it supports universal health care and universal access to health care, it did not believe that the NHI would succeed in rooting out mismanagement and corruption in the health department.

“…certainly not in the hands of officials who will face no consequences when they facilitate corruption,” said DA spokesperson on Health Michéle Clarke.

Clarke accused Motsoaledi of failing to present a detailed costing for the NHI, and for insisting that he plans to fund the NHI through “currently unsanctioned taxes”.

She said according to Motsoaledi the only way to fix the public healthcare system was to change its funding model, which meant implementing the NHI.

She explained that the NHI's funds would come from shifting funds from national government departments and agencies and the provincial equitable share; the reallocation of medical scheme tax credits; payroll taxes; and surcharges on personal income tax.

Clarke said Motsoaledi failed to answer the DA's question as to whether he had consulted National Treasury on his tax plan, and what Treasury's view of new taxes was.

She explained that the NHI could not be funded without a Money Bill, which only Treasury could introduce.

“He also did not explain how scrapping medical aid subsidies paid to civil servants will work, despite this being a significant source of funding for his plan.

“Minister Motsoaledi further failed, yet again, to take accountability for the lack of consequences for mismanagement and corruption which has hollowed out hospitals like Tembisa Hospital and continues to cripple provincial departments. The Minister seems completely unable to consider how this problem would not disappear under the NHI,” she highlighted.

She pointed to new revelations in the oxygen plant tender issue, which revealed that Motsoaledi failed to remove the entire Pressure Swing Adsorption tender from the Independent Development Trust (IDT) and place it under the Development Bank of Southern Africa as promised.

“The R152-million contract awarded to Maziya On-Site Gas Systems to install 10 oxygen plants is still being managed by the IDT. Furthermore, the IDT failed to present a forensic report on the tender to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure this morning as requested,” explained Clarke.

She said Motsoaledi’s recent failure to publicly do as promised, and his “continuous failure” to implement consequence management, were indications that an NHI Fund would be compromised.