WATCH | Bhekisisa: NHI appoints two new chief directors — here’s what you need to know

The appointments for the heads of two more of the five directorates of the health department's National Health Insurance (NHI) branch were approved on Monday, says NHI deputy director-general Nicholas Crisp.

The two positions will oversee:

• user and service provider management; and
• healthcare benefits and provider payment design.

The other three directorates, of which two already have heads, are:

• health product procurement;
• digital systems; and
• risk identification and fraud prevention.

Only the directorate for fraud prevention needs a chief director. 

The new staff who were appointed this week will report for work in August or September. The names of the appointees have not yet been released. 

The latest news comes after the National Treasury approved money to appoint 44 people in the NHI branch late last year, which will bring the total staff tally for the core office running the branch to about 100 employees.

The National Assembly gave the go-ahead for the much debated bill in June after many rounds of public input. But other than the timeframes for implementing the fund being pushed out, with the first phase to run from this year to 2026 instead of from 2017 to 2022 as planned before, and the minister’s decision powers being reined in, little has changed from the version previously tabled.

Under the NHI private medical schemes will essentially cease to exist, at least as we know them.

What changes in their healthcare can South Africans expect to see happening in the first year after the bill becomes law, if approved by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP)? 

‘‘Nothing,” Crisp said in an interview on Bhekisisa’s monthly TV programme, Health Beat, in June. Full implementation, he said, “will take decades”.    

However, within the first five years after the bill becomes an act, there will likely be fewer medical schemes in the country and their benefit packages will look more or less the same, which will set the groundwork for the basic package the NHI will offer, said Crisp.

Sasha Stevenson, head of health at Section27, a public interest law centre, said the fund, which will essentially be a system of contracting, will be “far from simple” and legal opposition should be expected. 

Mia Malan spoke to these experts to find out what’s next now that the bill is ready to go to the NCOP, the next step in the lawmaking process, what it will mean for health workers having to put the plan into action, and what South Africans should and should not be worried about.

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.