Ramaphosa’s political gimmicks will not make NHI work, says AfriForum

One brilliant research facility does not make National Health Insurance (NHI) constitutional or fundable. This is how AfriForum responds to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) facility at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria yesterday. During the visit, Ramaphosa said, among other things, that those campaigning against the NHI should go there to see how the NHI will definitely work.

AfriForum points out that there is no connection between the quality of this facility and the constitutionality or workability of the NHI system. Furthermore, there are several reports of negligence and mismanagement at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital – the same institution that Ramaphosa was supposedly impressed with yesterday.

According to Louis Boshoff, AfriForum’s spokesperson on health, these comments by Ramaphosa show how far removed he is from the challenges and shortcomings of most public health facilities in the country. “The government needs at least R800 billion to fund the NHI. How is this research facility going to help get its hands on the money? And how does it help at all to fix dysfunctional rural clinics?”

Boshoff further mentions that even Nicholas Crisp, the Deputy Director-General of Health and head of the NHI system, had earlier said in an interview that the NHI is not a magic bullet but a financing mechanism for healthcare. Now, however, Ramaphosa seems to believe that the NHI is a magic bullet that will conjure up affordable healthcare out of thin air.

AfriForum is now ready to take the government to court and have them prove how the NHI system can improve healthcare provision. AfriForum will also provide expert evidence on why the NHI will actually have the opposite effect.