LETTER: Where will South Africans go if NHI ruins our health services?
As good as the NHI may seem in principle, it was too big, expensive and challenging to implement and sustain even before the pandemic
29 May 2023 - 18:09
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National Health Insurance (NHI) should be used to pool funds collected from employees and businesses and fund universal healthcare coverage. Nowhere is there even a hint that the private sector will be used to supplement any shortfalls, which seems to be the view of some South Africans who are convinced that the NHI is the panacea that will save our ailing state health system.
SA's unemployment rate during the first quarter of the year was 32.9%, the highest in the world. UK unemployment stands at 3.6%. It is a highly industrialised country, which is why it has been able to sustain its National Health Service since July 5 1948, when it was introduced at Park Hospital, near Manchester.
It has not been easy — the UK recruits health professionals of all categories from all corners of the world, who also contribute monthly towards the NHI in addition to their pay-as-you-earn tax and contributing their skills. Despite the advantages the UK has other many other countries, even for them it has not been smooth sailing.
Another example that failed spectacularly was Zimbabwe, after then-president Robert Mugabe introduced a form of universal healthcare coverage, Health For All, in 1992, which was a complete failure. About three months ago a Zimbabwean journalist gave a detailed, sad account of a country without health services.
More than 4,000 Zimbabwean health professionals have found employment in overseas countries in addition to those who have been working abroad for years. Ambulances stand unused due to a lack of fuel and spare parts, pharmacy shelves are empty because there is no medication. Patients who need surgery will get help only if they are able to pay for drugs, suturing material or buy blood for transfusion from private blood companies.
That is why so many Zimbabweans now depend on SA healthcare services — the journalist mentioned above even had the decency to thank the SA government for treating so many Zimbabweans over the years.
What will happen to South Africans if the NHI collapses our health services? Where will we go for help? Ideology cannot always triumph over realistic reasoning.
Another country that has practised universal healthcare coverage is Cuba, but it is struggling to sustain it, depending on its diaspora working in other countries to send aid to the country to sustain their healthcare.
As good as the NHI may seem in principle, it was too big, expensive and challenging to implement and sustain even before the pandemic. Now is the time for reconstruction and rebuilding health teams after so many health professionals succumbed to Covid-19 and the economy and so many livelihoods were decimated.
Cometh Dube-Makholwa Midrand
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Where will South Africans go if NHI ruins our health services?
As good as the NHI may seem in principle, it was too big, expensive and challenging to implement and sustain even before the pandemic
National Health Insurance (NHI) should be used to pool funds collected from employees and businesses and fund universal healthcare coverage. Nowhere is there even a hint that the private sector will be used to supplement any shortfalls, which seems to be the view of some South Africans who are convinced that the NHI is the panacea that will save our ailing state health system.
SA's unemployment rate during the first quarter of the year was 32.9%, the highest in the world. UK unemployment stands at 3.6%. It is a highly industrialised country, which is why it has been able to sustain its National Health Service since July 5 1948, when it was introduced at Park Hospital, near Manchester.
It has not been easy — the UK recruits health professionals of all categories from all corners of the world, who also contribute monthly towards the NHI in addition to their pay-as-you-earn tax and contributing their skills. Despite the advantages the UK has other many other countries, even for them it has not been smooth sailing.
Another example that failed spectacularly was Zimbabwe, after then-president Robert Mugabe introduced a form of universal healthcare coverage, Health For All, in 1992, which was a complete failure. About three months ago a Zimbabwean journalist gave a detailed, sad account of a country without health services.
More than 4,000 Zimbabwean health professionals have found employment in overseas countries in addition to those who have been working abroad for years. Ambulances stand unused due to a lack of fuel and spare parts, pharmacy shelves are empty because there is no medication. Patients who need surgery will get help only if they are able to pay for drugs, suturing material or buy blood for transfusion from private blood companies.
That is why so many Zimbabweans now depend on SA healthcare services — the journalist mentioned above even had the decency to thank the SA government for treating so many Zimbabweans over the years.
What will happen to South Africans if the NHI collapses our health services? Where will we go for help? Ideology cannot always triumph over realistic reasoning.
Another country that has practised universal healthcare coverage is Cuba, but it is struggling to sustain it, depending on its diaspora working in other countries to send aid to the country to sustain their healthcare.
As good as the NHI may seem in principle, it was too big, expensive and challenging to implement and sustain even before the pandemic. Now is the time for reconstruction and rebuilding health teams after so many health professionals succumbed to Covid-19 and the economy and so many livelihoods were decimated.
Cometh Dube-Makholwa
Midrand
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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