On 13 June 2023, the National Assembly unsurprisingly passed the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, amidst much rhetoric from health minister Joe Phaahla, who declared it in the lower house as “one of the most revolutionary pieces of legislation presented to the National Assembly since the dawn of democracy”.
Health ombud Prof Malegapuru Makgoba’s warnings in the article Most public health facilities would fail NHI test, should really come as no surprise to anyone and he should be commended for speaking the truth to parliament’s health portfolio committee on the poor conditions in state facilities and how detached from reality the NHI proposal is.
The modern democratic era has witnessed a health policy process with a variety of inquiries, new health proposals, and new legislation, although broadly speaking it can ideologically be split into two eras, the first from 1994 to 2007 and then from 2008 onwards.
Adjacent to attempts by the ANC to implement property expropriation without compensation (EWC), the National Health Insurance (NHI) represents the most significant and far-reaching official policy proposal contemplated during South Africa’s democratic era.
South Africa’s public health system is perceived poorly by many and routinely attracts negative press coverage over its numerous failures, but it nonetheless remains a substantial and important national asset, relied upon by over 80% of citizens.
This fourth article of five provides a high-level overview of the private health sector, a substantial and well-established industry generally delivering high quality care across the spectrum of clinical categories.
In 2013, the health department established the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC), a body that routinely measures compliance by public health establishments against best practice clinical and management standards.
The recent presentation at the Board of Healthcare Funder’s annual conference by Christoff Raath, joint-CEO of Insight Actuaries, should garner wide support from the private healthcare industry.
Government would have us believe – without any clarifying analysis or supporting research – that if taxpayers pay additional taxes to finance NHI, and the government nationalises the private sector, magically, there will be world-class healthcare available for every citizen in the land.
