Cyril’s strongest backing of NHI

The government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic is a building block towards SA’s healthcare future under the National Health Insurance (NHI) programme.

This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who gave the strongest endorsement yet of the NHI, emphasising that the pandemic that has gripped the world would not derail efforts to implement the controversial universal healthcare programme.

In fact, Ramaphosa said, the government’s reliance on a private-public partnership to deal with the coronavirus outbreak adequately prepared the ground for the NHI.

“Because of Covid-19, we have had to quickly improve our health system to be ready to serve everyone, regardless of their ability to pay – which is a fundamental principle of the NHI,” he said.

Ramaphosa was engaging with editors and senior journalists during a virtual forum organised by the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) on Sunday.

He repeatedly spoke of the NHI as the silver lining to this unprecedented healthcare crisis.

“This could well be seen as the genesis of an NHI, because no one who has been infected by Covid-19 has been turned away. They have been accepted and admitted to our health facilities. This is precisely what the NHI is aimed at doing,”

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has repeatedly referenced the importance of the NHI when talking about government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The National Health and Allied Workers Union has argued that the implementation of the NHI had to be sped up in the wake of Covid-19.

But the private sector has been less than optimistic.