{"id":92151,"date":"2025-10-28T18:49:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:17:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:17:38","slug":"health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts","title":{"rendered":"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Scrapping medical tax credits, redirecting subsidies to civil servants for medical aid – and the introduction of payroll taxes – are among the health department\u2019s proposals to establish a National Health Insurance (NHI).<\/p>\n

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has moved to dispel what he said was misinformation about where the money will come from, saying existing grants from the fiscus will be redirected to get the fund off the ground.<\/p>\n

Parliament\u2019s appropriations committee has on Tuesday been probing the funding sources for the fund amid criticism that Parliament has not been circumspect enough about how universal health care will be funded.<\/p>\n

While the Department of Health (DoH) is not putting a single price tag to the implementation of the NHI, Motsoaledi said it\u2019s not an overnight event.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s pointed fingers at members of Parliament (MPs) and government employees who are subsidised to the tune of R70 billion a year to belong to a private medical scheme, saying there\u2019s already money in the system that can be redirected to the fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you bring the money back to the poor we will leave you to your own devices. Why are you being given tax credits for joining a medical aid, when an ordinary person on the street cannot? We are talking about fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Deputy Director-General Nicholas Crisp said instead of rebates of around R34 billion a year for belonging to a medical aid, redirecting existing grants for health services to the NHI fund – and even introducing surcharges – are options under consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware that surcharges are not popular, and we\u2019ve heard many complaints about various surcharges.\u201d<\/p>\n

But MPs have expressed reservations about introducing new taxes and surcharges \u2013 and whether the National Treasury will agree to ringfence these to specifically fund the NHI.<\/p>\n

The DoH said it will be up to the National Treasury to introduce money bills to fund the scheme.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Scrapping medical tax credits, redirecting subsidies to civil servants for medical aid – and the introduction of payroll taxes – are among the health department\u2019s proposals to establish a National Health Insurance (NHI). Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has moved to dispel what he said was misinformation about where the money will come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-92151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nHealth Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scrapping medical tax credits, redirecting subsidies to civil servants for medical aid - and the introduction of payroll ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scrapping medical tax credits, redirecting subsidies to civil servants for medical aid - and the introduction of payroll ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T18:49:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T19:17:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T18:49:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-28T19:17:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts\"},\"wordCount\":341,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts\",\"name\":\"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T18:49:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-28T19:17:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Scrapping medical tax credits, redirecting subsidies to civil servants for medical aid - and the introduction of payroll ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts - South Africa","description":"Scrapping medical tax credits, redirecting subsidies to civil servants for medical aid - and the introduction of payroll ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts","og_description":"Scrapping medical tax credits, redirecting subsidies to civil servants for medical aid - and the introduction of payroll ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-10-28T18:49:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-28T19:17:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts","datePublished":"2025-10-28T18:49:48+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-28T19:17:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts"},"wordCount":341,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg","keywords":["South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts","name":"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-28T18:49:48+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-28T19:17:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Scrapping medical tax credits, redirecting subsidies to civil servants for medical aid - and the introduction of payroll ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666391.876621.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-dept-proposes-payroll-taxes-and-medical-tax-credit-cuts#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Health Dept Proposes Payroll Taxes and Medical Tax Credit Cuts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}