PRETORIA,The National Health Insurance (NHI) White Paper will be published as a policy document in the government gazette on Friday, the Department of Health announced on Thursday.

Approved by Cabinet recently, the White paper lays the foundation for moving South Africa towards universal health coverage through the implementation of the NHI.

Building on the significant achievements over the last 20 years, the National Development Plan envisions that by 2030, South Africa should have made significant strides in moving towards universal health coverage and that this will be critical to realising the vision of a long and healthy life for South Africans.

The NHI seeks to transform the financing of the health system in pursuit of the goal of universal health coverage.

Releasing details of the NHI White Paper on Thursday, Health Minister Dr Aron Motsoaledi, said that priority will be given to vulnerable groups including, amongst others, the elderly, school children, unemployed people, pregnant women, as well as unemployed people.

All pregnant women would be able to go for antenatal care, regardless of their socio-economic status, said Motsoaledi.

He also noted that a number of existing legislation will need to be changed.

To enable the introduction of NHI, a number of existing legislation will need to be changed. These include the National Health Act, Mental Health Care Act, Health Professions Act, Traditional Health Practitioners Act, Allied Health Professions, Medical Schemes Act, the Nursing Act, the minister said.

The department said it has identified one thousand and sixty eight facilities as being ready for NHI.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK