What is the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, and what does it mean to South Africans seated at different sides of the table?
The objective of the NHI Bill is for every South African to have access to quality healthcare regardless of their background or income without worrying about the cost. One public health fund to effectively meet the health needs of the entire country.
Also read: Legal wrangling on the cards following signing of NHI Bill
The NHI Fund will cover South Africans of all races, rich or poor and legal long-term residents.
Sounds like the perfect utopia, right? But what does it actually mean for you, especially if you’re already paying for healthcare?
Before we dive into explaining the NHI Bill, let’s first address the hot topic of Ramaphosa just happening to find that special pen on the eve of the elections. Yes, we see what you’ve done there, Mr President.
On Wednesday afternoon, in a Cape Talk interview, radio host John Maytham interviewed Professor Terrence Kommal of North-West University, a medical doctor and the CEO of Medical Expert Consulting Group, about the impact and reality of the NHI Bill in South Africa.
According to Professor Kommal, South Africa ranks 12th on the world’s list of countries offering their citizens free healthcare. So why is there a need for the NHI? To the person who wakes up at 5am to catch two modes of transport and stands in a line at a dirty healthcare facility for an entire day to see a doctor or get the treatment they need, the idea of a more equitable healthcare system seems like the only way forward.
But the problem isn’t the lack of free healthcare; it’s the quality of our public hospitals, from the infrastructure to the service and care received, and this can only be solved by our running government.
Instead of making overambitious promises about establishing a universal healthcare system in South Africa, the president should prioritise addressing the significant economic and systemic issues plaguing the current healthcare system.
Although the bill has been signed into law, full implementation of a working system could take decades.
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So, how does the NHI benefit South Africans and who pays for it?
The NHI aims to make healthcare accessible by pooling funds from taxes to cover essential services. So, yes, that means everyone chips in through taxes, but in return, we all get access to the care we need, from regular check-ups to serious treatments.
Employers will collect and submit their employees’ contributions in a similar manner to UIF contributions.
- There will be one pool of healthcare funding for private and public healthcare providers alike.
- When people visit healthcare facilities, there will be no fees charged because the NHI fund will cover the costs of people’s medical care in the same way that medical aids do for their members.
- South Africans will no longer be required to contribute directly to a medical health scheme to get quality health care.
But what about your medical scheme? Well, they’re not going away, but they might change a bit. Instead of duplicating what the NHI offers, they could focus more on giving you extra benefits that complement what the NHI provides.
So, what does this mean for you? It’s like trying to balance tradition with something new. You might still rely on your medical scheme for certain things, but you’ll also get important services from the NHI.
When the NHI is fully implemented, the role of medical schemes will change, as they will provide cover for services not reimbursable by the NHI Fund.
Discovery Health argues that although it supports the NHI Fund as part of an integrated healthcare model, limiting the role of medical schemes would be counterproductive to the NHI because there are simply insufficient resources to meet the needs of all South Africans: ‘Limiting people from purchasing the medical scheme coverage they seek will seriously curtail the healthcare they expect and demand.’
‘It poses the risks of eroding sentiment, and of denuding the country of critically needed skills, and is impacting negatively on local and international investor sentiment and business confidence.’
Some objections to the NHI Bill include concerns about the standards of public hospitals, the financial burden of an additional tax on struggling South Africans, and the potential collapse of private medical aid services.
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