One can understand why South Africans are so hesitant to welcome a so-called free health care system that government promises to foot the bill for. This is also why there are fears that health care professionals will leave the country. If government officials are eating into the funds earmarked for treatment and care and those institutions don’t get paid, those institutions will close up shop.
Worse still, the NHI dictates what fees are charged by health care providers and while there will be committees that debate these fees, there’s no telling how adequately or inadequately the fees set would cover the expenses incurred for treatment.Free health care isn’t a unicorn, many countries offer their citizens the service including China which only introduced basic medical insurance in 2018. As of September 2020, 1.35 billion people in China were covered by a basic medical insurance system.
There is also very little talk of an alternative to NHI aside from leaving things as is, but as above, the existing system doesn’t work for the majority of citizens. Purchasing of personal health care services for vulnerable groups such as children, women, people with disabilities and the elderly.Of consolation are promises that the NHI will be transparent. The Department of Health is also working with the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum and the Special Investigating Unit to identify risk as well as analysing and mitigating all fraud and corruption risks that may affect the fund.