I have attended more than 10 public hearings on National health Insurance (NHI) over the last few months. It has become abundantly clear to me and most others who understand the policy and its context that many people still don’t grasp what it will entail and offer. Some just don’t want to see it for the catastrophe it will ineluctably be, whilst others welcome whatever outcome, good or bad, it delivers. And yet, it isn’t difficult at all to see where it will lead.
I was asked at a roundtable discussion with health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize in December whether I support the idea behind NHI. My answer was that I support improved health services for everyone in the country, but that NHI is not a means to that end. I would think all reasonable and compassionate people do…..more