NHI threat to private care excellence

THE SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) has warned that a national health insurance (NHI) scheme would threaten the excellence of South Africa's private healthcare sector.

SAIRR deputy chief executive Frans Cronje has been reported by SAPA as saying that it would be problematic to introduce the scheme at a time when evidence suggested that the public healthcare sector was in disarray.

Adding that addressing management and other ills confronting public hospitals and clinics could do as much, if not more, to improve the healthcare services available to poor people than any NHI scheme, he pointed out that the findings of a report by the institute's Unit for Risk Analysis questioned the financial feasibility of an NHI scheme.

The cost, according to the report, could be as high as R465bn a year if it sought to give all South Africans benefits on a par with those enjoyed by private medical aid beneficiaries. This, said Cronje, was obviously not affordable.