Healthcare policy expert impressions of the National Health Insurance (NHI)
- By Wits University
The National Health Insurance (NHI) green paper was released last week by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. The Minister described the first steps towards establishing the national health insurance as historic adding that it will ensure decent healthcare – a right that large numbers of South Africans, over many generations, have never known.
Reactions to the NHI, a financing system that aims to ensure that all South Africans and legal residents are provided with essential healthcare, regardless of their employment status and ability to make a direct monetary contribution to the NHI Fund, have been varied. Wits Health Economist, Prof. Alex van den Heever in the School of Public and Development Management, health policy expert Prof. Laetitia Rispel and Head of the School of Public Health, Prof. Sharon Fonn have penned responses to the proposed plan.
to read the Sunday Tribune, 19 August 2011 article entitled NHI paper a symptom of the malaise by Van den Heever.
published in The Star, 16 August 2011 by Rispel and Fonn tackles the present and the where-to with the NHI.