The vital signs are present and it appears we are finally on the doorstep of quality healthcare for all. Well, that is the hope anyway.
I have previously expressed my support for the National Health Insurance or NHI, and I haven’t fundamentally changed my view.
In theory, the NHI assures the same standard of healthcare across the board for all South Africans.
The fear was that it could spell the beginning of the end for medical insurance and medical aid schemes, who have been ruling the roost for decades now when it comes to quality healthcare.
However, the health minister had a reassuring tone, after the bill went through Parliament last week, talking about a pooling of resources between the private and the public health sectors, which he says will lead to the two complementing each other... in theory anyway.
Naysayers have always been concerned that the NHI will be centrally managed, with the health minister
having the final say over how funds are allocated.
Given our politicians’ penchant for corruption, that is of course a serious concern.
I admit that R300 billion is a massive temptation for long fingers. But I think that can be mitigated by the people who are placed on the board of the NHI Fund.
I’m hoping they settle on retired judges and doctors, nurses, patients, and a few professionals of course.
That sort of oversight could result in good balance.
It would be a good idea to add in ordinary citizens who have been patients at public healthcare facilities; the people who join the clinic queue at 5am, just so they can be assured that they will be seen by a doctor somewhere after lunch.
There is one thing that concerns me, though, and that is the fact that the bill was muscled through the National Assembly by the ANC majority.
This means they completely ignored the 125 opposition votes, which represents a large portion of the electorate.
While some of the objections are of course political grandstanding, others have genuine merit and should be entertained.
When it comes to something of this significance, ANC MPs shouldn’t be so arrogant to believe that they are the only authorities, and that they have considered all possibilities.
If history is anything to go by, then they should know that this is courting the kind of disaster that is akin to a fool’s errand.
I really do hope that this law works the way it is intended, but it would’ve had a greater chance of success, if the ANC consulted broadly and secured buy-in from all parties.