Fourteen days before the elections, President Cyril Ramaphosa will sign the country’s biggest health policy overhaul into law, effectively consigning medical schemes to providing options only for small private elective procedures once implemented.
In a surprise move, Ramaphosa announced that he will sign the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law on Wednesday, 15 May, at 2pm. It is likely to immediately be taken to court by opposition parties and the organised private health industry.
“[It] directs the transformation of South Africa’s healthcare system to achieve universal coverage for health services and, through this, overcomes critical socioeconomic imbalances and inequities of the past,” the Presidency said. ….more