In his recent presentation of a report to Parliament’s Health Portfolio, Deputy Director-General of Health, Dr Anban Pillay said: “The link between the Health Market Inquiry (HMI) and the NHI ‘must be appreciated’ to ensure uniformity in approach and policy coherence. – News24 (4 April 2025)
The report was put together five years ago after the release of the Competition Commission’s HMI report in 2020.
According to Pillay, the ‘strategic thrust’ of the response to the HMI report was to ‘locate interventions within the context of the NHI Act’.
Among the HMI’s recommendations was the reporting and monitoring of health outcomes to determine if objectives have been reached.
“We do not agree with the commodification of health. In principle, we would want to move from the current dominant system of commodification to health as a public good. But we acknowledge that the HMI investigation was premised on the basis of ever rising costs in private health,” said Pillay
The HMI report had concluded the private healthcare market was subject to distortions which adversely affected competition, said Pillay.