Healthcare and epidemiology expert Professor Benjamin Smart says universal access to healthcare through the National Health Insurance (NHI) is a wonderful goal, but a very expensive one.
The NHI bill, which was passed by parliament’s national assembly last month, is aimed at providing access to quality healthcare services, and for the establishment of a fund that will be used to pay for almost all medical treatment from accredited providers, with rates to be determined by the state.Smart says South Africa doesn’t have enough space in the budget for that.
“I think it’s a wonderful goal, universal access to high quality healthcare, but the reality behind NHI is that high quality healthcare is expensive, and it seems affordable, even on this model. To put it into perspective, I have seen a lot of comparisons with the UK health system, the National Health Service . The NHS is funded with a budget of about R4 trillion. R4 trillion is nearly three times the total SARS tax revenue for South Africa annually,” says Smart.
The party reiterated its message during its health and wellness summit in Johannesburg, but added that it supports universal access to healthcare.Individuals that contribute to the pool may have access to the health services rendered by the private entities and the South African public health system.
IFP Chief Whip, Narend Singh says, “The reason is that we have serious concerns about the governance of the NHI, moving forward. Firstly, we believe that having one single user pay system managed by government and all our taxpayers money going into that kitty. We know what kind of history government has in terms of managing funds. We’ve seen failed state-owned enterprises. We’ve seen billions of rands being poured into state-owned enterprises.
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