President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged all South Africans to get behind the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme. He states that we have the resources to provide standardised quality health care to every man, woman and child. He clearly has a UK type national health-care system in mind.
He is wrong. Our population is equivalent to the UK, but their national economy is at least five times larger. Like SA, the UK spends 8% of its national income on health care. Health care in the UK is adequate, but by no means ideal. There are long waiting lists, and the elderly, for budget reasons, are not given the level of health care younger people receive...
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