President Cyril Ramaphosa has finally signed into the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
The NHI Bill will change South Africa’s healthcare system and ensure universal coverage for all.
Ramaphosa says the challenge in implementing the NHI Bill is not funds but in the misallocation of resources that favours the private sector.
“We are not mad, we are not out liars, we are very much in line with what is happening in the global community. The real challenge in implementing NHI lies not in lack of funds but in the misallocation of recourses that currently favours the private health sector at the expense of public health needs, that’s where the problem is.”
Ramaphosa adds that the implementation of the HHI Act will be in phases.
Ramaphosa has signed the NHI into law at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Ramaphosa says those who want to keep their privilege are on a wrong boat.
“Now the implementation of the NHI will be done in a phased manner in a phase approach. With key milestones in each phase rather than an overnight event. Some fear that yes overnight, it is just boom, going to happen. And we are saying it’s going to be phased.”
The President has also attributed the fears that people have regarding the NHI Act to the fear that citizens once had when black people gained their right to vote.
Ramaphosa adds that financial hurdles facing the NHI can be managed.
“A number of South Africans were terrified that all these many South Africans, largely black would now have the right to vote and they were so terrified. Some of them started collecting tinned food, putting it in their cupboards, hundreds of tins, fearing that a calamity is about to descend on them. We all got the right to vote and nothing happened, only progress.”
