MEDIA STATEMENT
BY THE
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
|
IFP MEDIA
STATEMENT BY: 13 March 2008 The IFP agrees that health costs must be as low as possible while access, quality and medical scheme membership must be as high as possible. We believe that the Health Minister is working against her own goals through over regulating the private sector, subjecting it to contradictory regulations and not regulating some aspects at all. Take medical devices. For ten years she has refused to regulate medical devices. Yet she accuses hospitals of taking kick backs on medical devices. Medical Schemes accept the practice. WHY? The Minister is complaining about her own inaction. Medical Schemes are tightly regulated. The DOH nobly argues that schemes may not be profit making entities. But their administrators are and who puts a clear line between the two? Not our DOH. According to STATS SA for 2002 to 2007 specialist doctors were the highest contributors to medical inflation, followed by medical schemes. Hospitals account for 35% of schemes expenditure. What about administrator and broker fees? The Minister complains about hospital monopolies. There has been a moratorium on new licenses since 1996 and regulations would inhibit newcomers. The Board of Health Care Funders and the Competition Commission work against each other. We're in a royal regulatory conundrum. The IFP has a short and a long list of solutions. In short, we recommend the following: Negotiate good prices for large volume services for the private sector to operate for the state - hospitals, clinics, mobiles in rural areas, medical distribution everywhere, nurse training. That will bring prices down and quality up. Regulate medicines to have maximum exit prices only and minimum standards for safety, quality and efficacy. Regulate medical devices to ban kick backs and for minimum standards. Regulate complementary and traditional medicines for minimum standards. Ensure all standards are maintained by health ombudspersons, not health charters and policed by independent bodies. Demand transparency along the entire chain of medicine supplies AND between Medical Schemes and Administrators AND from hospitals on tariff increases. Introduce universal health care so that all who earn must pay on a sliding scale and the state covers the rest. Foster choice, competition and incentives. The question
we must ask is whether the Minister wants to reduce prices only
or quality as well. We believe that her actions will reduce
quality and access in the private and public sectors. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: |