DOCTORS’ organisations and NGOs have warned that South Africa could face a mass exodus of doctors if the national health insurance policy is implemented in its present format. They have also warned about the cost, saying how it will be funded has not been made clear. They were responding to the Health Department’s white paper on the NHI — intended to bridge the gap between private and public healthcare. More than 100 submissions were received by the May 31 deadline and the department is still responding to those submitted just before the deadline. The NHI is to be a single state-run medical aid fund that would buy all healthcare services, according to the white paper released in December. The NHI plan proposes major infrastructure upgradings for hospitals and clinics. According to the proposal, medical aid scheme cover would be restricted to the treatment of rare diseases and high-cost medicines — which would make medical aid cover prohibitively expensive and destroy private he...
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