Trade union Solidarity says that the ideal scenario of giving all citizens decent access to health care – which the National Health Insurance Bill (NHI Bill) wants to put forward – will not materialise and, in reality, will have the exact opposite effect.<\/p>\n
In June, health minister Aaron Motsoaledi\u00a0 presented the National Health Insurance Bill and the Medical Schemes Amendment Bill to the media.<\/p>\n
The bills will pave the way for more access to medical healthcare through National Health Insurance (NHI), and represent a massive shake-up to both the governmental and the private healthcare systems.<\/p>\n
According to Solidarity Research Institute researcher, Morn\u00e9 Malan, the public seems not to be sufficiently concerned about the drastic impact implementation of this system will have.<\/p>\n
“In terms of government\u2019s own models, our economy is by no means growing fast enough to fund the proposal. Moreover, all pilot projects undertaken so far have failed dismally. The NHI amounts to nothing less than a de facto nationalisation of South Africa\u2019s health care system,” Malan said.<\/p>\n
He said that if this bill is approved, the NHI will become the largest state enterprise in South Africa\u2019s history. “To put it into perspective \u2013 the NHI would be bigger than Eskom and SAA put together, and judged by the current state of affairs at both Eskom and the SAA this move bodes ill for the future of health care.”<\/p>\n