National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill

The Select Committee on Health and Social Services invites interested people and stakeholders to submit written comments on the National Health Insurance Bill [B11B-2019] (S76).

Enquiries, as well as written submissions, can be directed to Ms M Williams at [email protected] by no later than Friday, 15 September 2023 at 12h00. The original deadline was 1 September 2023.

Media Statement: Deadline Extension

The objective of the Bill is to achieve universal access to quality health care services in the Republic in accordance with section 27 of the Constitution; to establish a National Health Insurance Fund and to set out its powers, functions and governance structures; to provide a framework for the strategic purchasing of health care services by the Fund on behalf of users; to create mechanisms for the equitable, effective and efficient utilisation of the resources of the Fund to meet the health needs of the population; to preclude or limit undesirable, unethical and unlawful practices in relation to the Fund and its users; and to provide for matters connected herewith.

You can track the processing of the Bill here

NHI: Tracking the Bill through Parliament

The Bill has been tagged/classified as a section 76 bill (ordinary bill affecting provinces).

This Bill in substantial measure falls within the ambit of ‘‘health services’’ which is an area listed in Part A of Schedule 4, which makes provision for functional areas of concurrent national and provincial legislative competence.

In the Tongoane judgement, the CC held that the tagging test focuses on all the provisions of the Bill in order to determine the extent to which they substantially affect the functional areas listed in Schedule 4 and not on whether any of its provisions are incidental to its substance

The CC further held that the test for tagging must be informed by its purpose. Tagging is not concerned with determining the sphere of government that has the competence to legislate on a matter. Nor is the purpose concerned with preventing interference in the legislative competence of another sphere of government. The process is concerned with the question of how the Bill should be considered by the provinces and in the National Council of Provinces, and how a Bill must be considered by the provincial legislatures depends on whether it affects the provinces. The more it affects the interest, concerns and capacities of the provinces, the more say the provinces should have on its content

How to write a submission