Government officials, Dr Mark Blecher, Chief Director for Health and Social Development and Dr Anban Pillay, Deputy Director-General of Health Regulation and Compliance, urged the private healthcare sector to engage with the National Health Insurance (NHI) and explore potential collaboration and business opportunities, reported The Citizen (4 April 2025).
Blecher, addressing a round-table discussion organised by European Union Chamber of Commerce and the Innovative Pharmaceutical, requested those who fear the NHI to rather engage with it and ‘exploit the abundant opportunities that would emerge from the programme’.
Addressing the SA Medical Association (SAMA’s) concern that NHI was designed to keep private healthcare providers and funders out of the system, Belcher said:
“It is very unlikely, it is not easy to do that. Private financing of healthcare is very important to us,”
“NHI will be implemented gradually and in phases in consideration to the budget. The evolution of the NHI will be gradual. It will increase spending, which will be good for the pharmaceutical sector,” he said.