“Just relax, NHI is not going to happen.” Those were the words of economist Dawie Roodt this week as South Africans went into panic mode following the tabling of the National Health Insurance bill in Parliament. Twenty-five years since the idea was first mooted, the government announced the National Health Insurance scheme, its new health funding mechanism, would come into effect in 2026.
The news saw many health professionals weighing up their options between staying or moving abroad, while unions welcomed what it called a pro-poor policy. “Even without Eskom, the debt levels of national government will exceed 60% of the gross domestic product,” he said. “If you force everyone into one camp and tell them to work for the NHI, a lot of doctors are going to say goodbye.”Roodt said if the NHI were implemented it would fail and the government would blame it on the “capitalists and doctors who ran away”.