NHI: Motsoaledi’s sums don’t add up

7 August 2024

The National Health Insurance (NHI) will not only harm healthcare in South Africa, it will also result in poverty in the country spreading even wider.

Solidarity brings such truths into the spotlight again after ill-considered statements by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi following the ANC’s lekgotla of its executive committee in Boksburg. 

Motsoaledi criticised groups whose cost calculations predict sky-high amounts for the NHI and said that it would not really cost that much. He called it “mathematical hooliganism” and said these numbers are used against the poor in the population. 

According to Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), pressure groups started making calculations about NHI costs precisely because the government’s cost calculations are totally non-existent. 

He said analysts of NHI costs differ on estimated amounts, but all come to the same worrying conclusion. 

“Not one independent analyst has yet been able to arrive at an amount that is affordable. Unfortunately for the minister, this math shows how the NHI will be particularly bad for the poor.

“How will minimum wage workers suddenly be able to afford income tax? And the impact extends even further. The math also shows it will have a devastating effect on the entire country, because where is the government going to scrape together nearly R1 000 billion to make the NHI function?” Du Buisson asked.

The SRI’s 2023 cost report indicated how at least an additional R660 billion would be needed to implement the NHI. 

“The only reason why it won’t exceed the thousand billion mark is because there will then be no more doctors left in the country that need to get paid. More people need to hear this: The NHI will not help the poor and it will destroy healthcare for all of us,” Du Buisson said.

Furthermore, Minister Motsoaledi claimed that Solidarity’s litigation against the NHI will not be successful to prevent the system from being implemented in the end.

However, Solidarity differs from Motsoaledi in this regard, and they believe their case against an unconstitutional, unworkable and unenforceable system is indeed watertight.

According to Du Buisson, there are also other groups in addition to Solidarity that threaten legal action, although they generally only stick to threats.

“We would like to see other organisations and political parties’ court documents. Solidarity is confident that we will successfully fight the NHI. It will be even more effective if other players such as doctors, medical funds and certainly also political parties join this court battle,” he said.

Issued by Theuns du Buisson, Economic Researcher, Solidarity Research Institute, 7 August 2024