The Department of Health’s white paper on NHI and a financing paper by the National Treasury have been completed and will be tabled in Cabinet shortly.
For almost two years, the National Treasury has been intending to issue a white paper that will describe how the NHI will be funded. This paper has still not been released, indicating the complexity of the matter.
At this stage, it is possible that a mandatory contribution by all employees to fund the NHI will be introduced. If this happens, this will be another “tax” for employers and payrolls to administer and be responsible for. Due to the processes that the implementation of such a requirement must go through, the earliest that NHI contributions could start is March 2016, and even that date is debatable.
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