Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system will be an equaliser between rich and poor, as he delivered the seventh annual Dr AB Xuma Memorial Lecture at Rhodes University, reports SABC News. Dr AB Xuma, was the first black South African to become a medical doctor.
Motsoaledi is quoted in the report as saying: “South Africa is the only country in the world that spends so much money on so few people, and spends so little money on so many people… it doesn’t make sense, and the aim of NHI is to try and do away with that structural anomaly.”
South Africa spends 8.8 % of its GDP on health care. Half of this is spent on private health care, servicing 16 % of the population. The remaining 84 % goes to the under resourced public institutions.
Professor Robert Van Niekerk from the Institute of Social and Economic Research says: "Once we can achieve a situation, drawing on the NHI white paper, which is trying to establish a culture of social solidarity, where people who are more affluent are invested in a new kind of healthcare system which will allow our resources to be pooled into a single payer health care system, it means our health care resources can go to those who need it."
The Eastern Cape has two NHI pilot sites. The goal is to implement the NHI by 2025.
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