Spotlight on NHI: Money and the politics of aspiration
NHI is to be implemented in a context of dismal economic fundamentals, but there is nevertheless considerable reason for hope, writes leading health economist Susan Cleary.
Spotlight on NHI: NHI Bill will divert SA from Universal Health Coverage if some groups are excluded
The latest version of the NHI Bill proposes limited access to health care services for population groups such as asylum seekers and undocumented migrants with serious implications for universal health coverage.
Spotlight on NHI: Q&A with head of NHI office
Some key questions about NHI have crystallised in recent months. Spotlight put 12 of these questions to Nicholas Crisp, head of government’s NHI office.
Spotlight on NHI: Focus should be on building the public healthcare system
As a strategic purchaser the NHI should be expressly pro-public sector and strategically focus on building capacity in under resourced areas such as clinics and hospitals in poorer urban communities and in rural facilities, writes Dr Lydia Cairncross.
Spotlight on NHI: Why NHI should focus on cutting costs in the private sector first
The focus of NHI needs to shift from talking about fixing the public service first, to saving money first and especially in the private sector, argues John Ashmore.
Spotlight on NHI: Why an Office of Health Products Procurement?
The Office of Health Products Procurement is a new entity introduced in the 2019 version of the NHI Bill. Nkululeko Conco asks what it will mean for procurement under NHI.
Spotlight on NHI: Why private sector reforms are essential to making NHI work
Government’s National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill is not the only roadmap to quality healthcare for all in South Africa. The Health Market Inquiry into the private healthcare sector report points the way toward an alternative, possibly more effective, approach.
Spotlight on NHI: Could NHI fix emergency medical services?
The shortage of prompt, dependable, quality ambulance services in much of South Africa is a national crisis. Might NHI offer a solution?
Spotlight on NHI: Exclusion of vulnerable groups opens NHI up to legal challenge
The NHI train is speeding towards implementation, but it’s leaving some people behind. This makes the NHI Bill vulnerable to legal challenge.
Spotlight on NHI: Will inadequate governance arrangements be NHI’s Achilles heel?
A lack of public participation and transparency, and the Minister of Health being given too much power – Tendai Mafuma explores some key concerns with NHI’s proposed governance arrangements.
Spotlight on NHI: Trust deficit overshadows industry meeting
An industry talk shop reveals that it’s not universal health coverage that’s the big worry, but rather trust in the government’s ability to deliver on what it proposes in the NHI Bill.
Spotlight on NHI: Era of NHI similar to early 1990s
In the nineties, the optimism of the oppressed and dispossessed was tempered by the fear of the previously advantaged of losing a way of life they had come to accept as normal. Stories of their imminent demise dominated fireside discussions.