NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE
Council for Medical Schemes circular shows disregard for the rule of law
Government Employees Medical Scheme boss Guni Goolab sounds the alarm on the state’s plan to merge it with other public-servant medical schemes
The principal officer of the Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems), Guni Goolab, has sounded some cautionary notes on the state’s plan to merge it with other public-servant medical schemes. This is largely in response to Circular 42 published by the Council for Medical Schemes in September, which outlines the government’s pre-emptory strategy to consolidate 11 medical schemes into Gems. The council’s aim is to ready the industry and the country for the introduction of the state’s contentious National Health Insurance (NHI) plan. The two bills health minister Aaron Motsoaledi published in June, the NHI and the Medical Schemes Amendment bills, are both aligned to enable NHI. However, there are a few moot problems with all this resolve by the government. The council refers to this consolidation strategy in its circular as a fait accompli, even going so far as to recommend which Gems benefit options members from other schemes should go to. It even predicts Gems’s financial results ...
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