Medi Clinic Calls for Multi Tiered Health System

August 22 - Medi Clinic, one of South African's leading hospital groups, said that a multi tiered health system would be more effective in the country, instead of the proposed new National Health Insurance system.

The Cape based group presented a detailed analysis of the government's proposal that hopes to bring equal healthcare to all South Africans, regardless of their income.

While Medi Clinic welcomed changes to South Africa's present health care regime, it nevertheless came out against the government's charges that private hospital pricing is problematic.

Medi Clinic said that it believed that the best type of system for South Africa is a multi tiered one, similar to those used in countries such as Thailand, Mexico and Brazil.

He likened these systems to the mines benefits hospital systems, similar to US models on which Health Maintenance Organisations are based.   According to Medi Clinic's Roly Buys, the unique thing about systems such as these is that doctors, hospitals, pharmacists and funders are all housed in a single system.

Keep the Tax Subsidy

Buys believes that the government should not be in such a hurry to remove tax benefits for medical schemes.

"Medical schemes should be able to retain the tax subsidy," he argued.

Buys reiterated what has already been said repeatedly in the private health sector: That the industry has to be part of the solution and that private hospitals are an asset that pay heavy taxes into the existing system.

As far as Medi Clinic's role in the creation of the new National Health Insurance system went, Buys saw the group engaging in public-private partnerships and he said that his group could also make a major contribution to the training of nurses and other medical staff, as well as share knowledge on billing and other administrative tasks.

He said that the government needed to be clear over issues such as overall costs, benefits and co-payments so that health care groups could make proper calculations on how they fit into the new system. All information regarding the NHI should be transparent and part of a formal process, he said.