Pretoria - The United Nations has introduced World Universal Health Coverage Day on its calendar, says Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
The day 12 December has been declared World Universal Health Coverage Day and it will be celebrated annually.
The date was chosen because on the day in 2012, 92 countries signed a resolution at the UN that the world must change its tune and move towards universal health coverage.
The Minister said this at a media briefing in Pretoria, on Friday, where he released the White Paper on the National Health Insurance (NHI) for South Africa.
The policy was approved by Cabinet for public comment.
He said the current manner in which health care is financed favours only certain sections of the population, who are mostly the elite and the poor are mostly left behind.
The aim of universal health coverage is to meet the population health needs, and also to remove financial barriers to health care.
“We need to reduce incidents of catastrophic health care expenditure. There are people who end up in poverty because somebody got sick at home and they had to sell their assets,” said the Minister.
He said the current system is punishing the poor as majority of specialists are found in private health care facilities, which is accessible to only about 16% of the population while the majority are only being treated by 20% of medical specialists in the country.
To address the problems, he said the NHI will extend coverage to all South Africans, irrespective of their socio-economic status, and it will also extend to legal permanent residents.
He said NHI will cater for the health needs of the entire population. - SAnews.gov.za
