With differences over the National Health Insurance (NHI) threatening to destabilise the government of national unity (GNU) the ANC has instructed its deployees in government not to make any compromises on the programme.

The ANC wants the NHI to be implemented in its current form while the DA – which was of the view that the programme will bankrupt the government if implemented in its current form – has demanded that spending on the programme should be deferred.

Briefing the media in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday ANC 1st deputy secretary general Nomvula Mokonyane said the ANC ‘s position that the NHI should be implemented as is, remained the same.

“From the ANC side, nothing has changed,” she said.

Signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of last year’s general elections, the NHI – if implemented in its current form – would limit the role of medical schemes.

While there have been reports that some within the ANC now want the NHI to be used as an instrument to drive down private healthcare prices so the poor could be able to access private health facilities, Mokonyane was adamant that the ANC had not proposed any amendments to the current NHI Act.

In its recent Legotla, Mokonyane said, the ANC made it clear to party members who have been deployed to cabinet that they should work around what the party originally agreed on when it came to the NHI.

Speaking at the same media briefing, former health minister and ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member Dr Joe Phaahla, said the party was forging ahead with the implementation of the NHI.

“Work is being done around the drafting of the regulations for NHI. Once the regulations are ready, they will be released for public comment. So, we are moving ahead in terms of implementation,” he said.

By making compromises on the NHI, Phaahla said, the ANC would be undermining Parliament – which he said unanimously supported the programme.

“For example, in the NCOP (National Council of Provinces) eight of the nine provinces supported the NHI,” he said.