BusinessLive reports that, reaffirming the government’s commitment to universal healthcare, President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated in his state of the nation address (Sona) on Friday that the long-awaited National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill would be submitted to Parliament within the next few weeks.  

NHI is a set of health financing reforms that will aim at providing everyone with healthcare services that are free at the point of delivery.  The government began piloting NHI in 2011, but has yet to drive through any significant reforms to breathe the policy into life.  “The time has now arrived to finally implement universal health coverage through NHI,” Ramaphosa said, adding that key NHI projects targeting society’s most vulnerable people would begin in April.  He also announced that the government would launch a major cancer campaign within the next three months and emphasised its commitment to combating SA’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, promising to provide treatment to another two-million people by 2020.

• Read this report by Tamar Kahn in full at BusinessLive

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