The Citizen reports that over a decade since the National Health Insurance (NHI) was piloted, there has been little or no improvement in the quality of public health service at the test sites, with poor hygiene, drugs stock outs, and long waiting hours still the order of the day.
This despite R5.1 billion having been spent testing the NHI in OR Tambo (Eastern Cape), Gert Sibande (Mpumalanga), Vhembe (Limpopo), Pixley ka Seme (Northern Cape), Eden (Western Cape), Dr K Kaunda (North West), Thabo Mofutsanyane (Free State) and Tshwane (Gauteng), uMzinyathi, uMgungundlovu and Amajuba (KwaZulu-Natal) The NHI pilot programme was rolled out in 2014 but failures in core pillars of the scheme, including medicines and medical supplies, cleaning material, and servicing and maintenance of equipment had started to show by 2017. Yet, in June MPs started clause-by-clause deliberations of the NHI Bill and, if the health committee agrees to the Bill, it will go to the National Assembly. The health financing system is designed to pool funds to provide access to quality affordable personal health services for all citizens, irrespective of their socio-economic status. Once fully implemented, the NHI Bill states that medical schemes will not be able to provide cover for services paid for by the scheme. But government’s track record in implementation and capability has been the biggest concern around the NHI. Public health specialist and activist, Dr Shakira Choonara, noted that the assessments of the NHI pilots showed multiple issues but that there was no clarity on how these issues would be dealt with. “The NHI Bill has become more of a political rhetoric tool versus something which is implementable. It is poorly written and in its current form [will not] resolve the issues we are seeing in the healthcare system,” Choonara claimed.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sipho Mabena at The Citizen (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page