The DA said it commends the South African Medical Association (SAMA) for telling Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla that the health system is not ready for National Health Insurance (NHI).
In a statement in PoliticsWeb, shadow health minister Michele Clarke said SAMA chair Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa had again highlighted the fact that the NHI fails to address challenges like shortages of crucial healthcare personnel, and that as a funding model, it fails to have sufficient staff funding.
SAMA, which represents 13 000 doctors working in the public and private sectors, previously said that it “cautions that the current funding mechanism, relying heavily on general tax revenue, payroll tax, and surcharges on personal income tax, may lead to financial hardships, particularly for the poor and middle-class citizens”.
The small tax base and existing economic challenges in South Africa might limit the affordability of the proposed funding model, it had added.
Clarke wrote that the Office of the Health Ombudsman has also been struggling with staff shortages since 2016 and consequently, only 148 of the 307 high and extreme-risk complaints against the Department of Health since 2018 have been resolved.
She said SAMA and former Health Ombud Professor Malegapuru Makgoba had raised one of the DA’s major concerns with the NHI: governance and corruption, with Makgoba saying the Health Department did not have competent leaders and managers to lead NHI.
It was almost certain, said the statement, that Phaahla would be wilfully deaf to the serious concerns raised by these highly qualified and regarded experts …choosing to ignore the opinions of medical professionals, health experts and stakeholders, opposition parties, and the general public when it comes to the havoc the NHI will cause to the public and private health sectors.
The DA said South Africa cannot afford the NHI. The costs to our fiscus, our overburdened taxpayers, our medical professionals, and our patients are too high.
PoliticsWeb article – SAMA confirms that NHI is unaffordable (Open access)
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