Heading to court about NHI  

14 June 2023

Solidarity today announced that it is getting ready for a major court case against the government’s plans for national health insurance. This comes after the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill was approved in parliament yesterday.

According to Solidarity, the latest legislation will undoubtedly be challenged in court. Solidarity’s comments on the proposed law already took the form of legal documents and it has instructed its legal team to start preparing for a court case.

“We realised from the outset that the NHI would probably be tested in court. The government’s plans to capture healthcare are unaffordable and unimplementable. It will lead to a mass exodus of health practitioners from the country,” Solidarity Chief Executive Dr Dirk Hermann said.

Solidarity has participated in all the public participation processes and has already achieved several victories against the NHI in court. The Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) has also undertaken comprehensive research in the medical sector which shows that the adoption and implementation of the NHI will lead to a huge exodus of medical professionals from the country.

“The government has already failed with the public healthcare system, and it now wants to fail on an even bigger scale. It has a history of failure when it comes to state enterprises, and there is no reason to believe the proposed NHI would not be to the serious detriment of South Africans. We cannot trust the government and we cannot deliver our medical professionals to them and trust our health to their hand. This is going to be a major court battle,” Hermann concluded.

Issued by Peirru Marx, Network Coordinator: Medical Sector, Solidarity, 14 June 2023