Cape Town - The South African National Aids Council Civil Society Forum (Sanac CSF) has welcomed the adoption of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill by Parliament’s portfolio committee on health.
The bill aims to provide universal access to health care in South Africa as enshrined in the Constitution as a fundamental right.
Sanac said the call for implementation of universal health care was made 29 years ago by the people of South Africa. Through the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), the democratic government in waiting was given a clear mandate that apartheid’s construct of quality health care for some and not others, should be smashed through the introduction of a National Health Insurance (NHI).
“In 2023, which is 29 years later, this ideal of the RDP remains a pipe-dream, which is unacceptable.”
The NHI seeks to ensure that no one is deprived of the right to health care because of their socio-economic status; it calls for a one public health fund with adequate resources to plan for and effectively meet the health needs of the entire population, not just for a selected few, and its ultimate goal is to achieve universal health coverage.
Sanac CSF National chairperson of the law and human rights sector, Thabo Majuja, said: “Health is a fundamental human right; (the) NHI is the vehicle to realise this right. We can’t wait and urge the government to make good on universal health coverage.”
The forum explained that people, especially the African poor majority, were most affected by HIV, TB and other ailments, and they relied solely on the public health system for treatment. The NHI seeks to improve and support better health outcomes and introduce one health system for all South Africans, and this is expected to result in immense benefits for the people.
The divide on many fronts, that have created a well-funded and well-resourced private health system at the detriment of the poorly funded and overburdened public health system, has no place in a people-centred democratic dispensation, the forum said.
It added that transforming the South African society requires “that we put people before profits”.
“With such an approach, we will see the people, through their communities, taking their place at the front, centre and back of their health needs, and by extension the response to end HIV and TB and other health ailments.”
Sanac CSF’s call is clear, simple and people-centred, said Mabalane Mfundisi, who is co-ordinating committee member responsible for the co-ordination of the Universal Health Coverage Task Team.
“The NHI is a platform to ensure the spirit and the letter of Section 27 of the RSA Constitution and the Article 12 of the United Nations Convent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966 are realised. Transforming the South African society requires that we put people before profits.”
Dr Matome Kganakga, member of the SANAC CSF co-ordinating committee, said: “Leadership characterised by solidarity from the social, economic and political elite is the ultimate key to the timely realisation of the NHI Bill, which is restricted by the reality that those tasked with delivering this mandate are also, in the main, amongst the close to 9 million beneficiaries of the medical aid schemes, therefore creating a contradiction for the authorities amongst the 15% of the private health care users tasked with making the decision for the 85% who are adversely affected by the broken public health care system.”
Sanac CSF said it would continue to confront the “highly racialised” model of funding for health in South Africa, as it did in terms of the HIV and TB response.
“We will continue fight against a system of funding that seeks to sustain an apartheid modus operandi that deepens inequalities along racial lines through patterns of development that restrict the lives of black South Africans. Communities must rise and confront Afro-pessimism agents, particularly those who have strategically placed themselves at the ‘centre’ of the health services on behalf of communities, when in fact they are opponents of the values of the Constitution of and the Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, including a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.”
Sanac CSF chairperson Mmapaseka Steve Letsike said: “We call for the redirection of health financing and accountability through the NHI to address community systems strengthening.
“This goes beyond the challenges confronted by the narrow biomedical-centred definition of health, pursuing absence of disease and infirmity.”
Cape Times