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Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, proposed a National Health Insurance (NHI) bill in 2019, with the aim of providing all South Africans with universal healthcare at an affordable price. The bill has recently been rubber-stamped through Parliament’s portfolio committee on Health.

But from the very beginning, the bill has received mixed reviews. While those who cannot afford private schemes, forced into a crumbling public healthcare system, might find this proposal incredibly attractive, others are panicking over what this could actually mean for proper healthcare in the country.

Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) chief executive Busi Mavuso has warned that the government’s NHI plans (in their current form) will leave everyone in the country worse off, effectively wiping out private healthcare providers, reported BusinessTech:

“In my view, the NHI envisaged in the bill would leave all South Africans worse off in a system in which state provision becomes impossible and private health provision is effectively closed down,” she said.

“The system would impose a single-payer model in which government is the only buyer of healthcare services for its citizens. It would relegate the private health insurance market to only complementary healthcare that is not covered by the state scheme.”

Mavuso argues that the bill is more likely to become a bureaucratic mess that will kill the private sector and remove a host of choices and competition from the market. She also said it would be a huge expense for the country, drawing resources out of the rest of the government and the services it provides while increasing the tax burden on all citizens.

“But most importantly, we have no reason to believe the quality of care it provides would be an improvement on the status quo. By forcing the private sector out of the provision of all but a limited set of complementary services, private provision would effectively cease,” she said.

The energy crisis has shown us what happens when the government refuses to work with the private sector, but instead of learning from these mistakes, the NHI scheme appears to lean into the worst of the government’s tendency toward populism and nationalisation.

Meanwhile, the Health Funders Association (HFA), which represents most medical schemes in the country, along with the South African Medical Association (SAMA), have rejected the bill in its current form.

Both groups, which have a firm standing in the private healthcare sector, have pushed back against many aspects of the laws, including the limitation on medical schemes, the lack of clarity on financing, the potential flight of skills and a drop in quality healthcare.

There’s also the question of trusting an already corrupt government with a huge amount of money. SAMA agrees that the government’s effective and just handling of the R500 billion NHI budget is dubious at best, especially given how COVID-19 funds were completely mismanagement, among the myriad other corruption scandals that have plagued our country.

Plus, provisions in the bill have already been declared unconstitutional with parliament’s own legal teams mentioning that parts of the bill will open up the government to legal challenges on constitutional grounds.

[source:businesstech]