2015 Budget Speech and Healthcare
Health spending will reach R178 billion in 2017/18. There has been a marked reduction in child mortality over the past five years, supported by improved access to antenatal services.
The anti-retroviral treatment programme now reaches 3 million patients. The mother-to-child transmission of HIV has decreased from 20 percent a decade ago to 2 percent last year, and is expected to decline further over the period ahead.
In the budget, R1.5 billion is shifted from provincial budgets to the national Department of Health to enable the National Institute of Communicable Diseases to be directly funded. This will be offset by lower tariffs for services provided by the National Health Laboratory Service. Port health services have also been shifted from provinces to the national department.
The Office of Health Standards Compliance has been listed as an independent legal entity with a budget rising to R125 million in 2017/18.
Under Minister [Aaron] Motsoaledi’s direction there has been progress over the past year in preparing for the transition to national health insurance. A discussion paper on financing options will be released shortly by the National Treasury, to accompany the NHI white paper.
