NHI: The DA's five steps towards achieving quality healthcare for all
The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that while solutions for healthcare problems need to be openly debated, the presently mooted, cumbersome National Health Insurance (NHI) plan will not reach the required outcome of achieving quality healthcare for all. Around 85% of South Africans rely on the public healthcare system for all their healthcare needs, and as it stands the South African public health system is crumbling.
The rising costs of private healthcare are beyond the means of the vast majority of South Africans. The poor level of public healthcare would be a major problem even in a healthy society, but considering South Africa's heavy burden of TB and HIV/AIDS the problem becomes seriously intensified. It is crucial that a means to deliver quality healthcare for all is identified.
While the DA supports individual aspects of a NHI such as compulsory medical aid contributions, we believe that an expensive, complex and layered system is not the solution to tackling the health care problems facing our country.
The DA will be analysing the proposals made today by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in detail. However, by way of an initial response, the DA believes that there are five key steps that need to be taken to move our country towards achieving quality healthcare for all.
These five key steps are as follows: