The National Health Amendment Bill would have the opposite effect on the health sector from what is intended, driving prices higher and increasing the numbers of professionals leaving for greener pastures overseas, DA leader Helen Zille said yesterday.

It is the second Bill in the past month - after the Expropriation Bill - to attempt to circumscribe the powers of the courts to adjudicate on the fairness of state actions. Zille said that she agreed with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang that prices in the private sector were too high, but stressed the route taken by the state was likely to destroy something that was working rather than making things better. According to a Business Day report, Zille said the Bill would effectively give the Minister the power to determine private sector hospital fees. 'High prices in the private sector is the government's fault for creating an uncompetitive and overregulated environment, and for enforcing an artificial divide between the public and the private sectors.'
Full Business Day report


Private healthcare practitioners will meet Parliament's Health Committee today over the proposed cap on fees. This follows a meeting between the Hospital Association of SA and the Minister on Saturday to discuss concerns about the Bill. Kurt Worrall-Clare, chief executive for the association, commenting on the meeting over the weekend, is quoted in The Times as saying: 'It is clear that there are ideological differences and fundamental misconceptions about private healthcare. 'She (the Minister) afforded us the opportunity to present our evidence ...and we should know in the next couple of days or weeks what her position is. 'We clearly stipulated that we are not happy with the legislation, and we are not happy with the re-draft.'
Full report in The Times