The decision by President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign the National Health Insurance (NHI) into law two weeks before the elections demonstrates just how desperate the ANC is.
Government is willing to sacrifice the country’s entire healthcare system to remain in power for another term.
The FF Plus has been warning against the destructive impact of the NHI for years and will join forces with all interest groups, including political parties, a wide range of civil organisations and medical professionals, that are prepared to fight the NHI all the way to the Constitutional Court.
The NHI is an unrealistic dream used by the ANC to create the illusion of world-class healthcare for everyone in South Africa.
It is not viable. The country’s entire healthcare system will collapse – just like Eskom and all the other public enterprises run into the ground by the ANC.
Ultimately, there will be virtually nothing left for anyone while quality medical care will become unaffordable. Those who are able to afford it will have to go abroad to receive life-saving medical treatment.
Making impractical promises to millions of unemployed voters just to garner their votes, even if it harms the country overall, demonstrates the ANC government’s moral bankruptcy.
The FF Plus points out in its 2024 Election Manifesto that South Africa is currently contending with a public healthcare sector that has collapsed. On the other hand, the private healthcare sector maintains world-class standards, but is expensive and inaccessible to many.
The FF Plus believes that the main obstacle in public healthcare is not a lack of money, but a lack of expertise and sound governance. Mismanagement and corruption have destroyed our public healthcare institutions.
The obsession with transformation means that even more expertise is forced out of the sector – so much so that thousands of South Africa’s healthcare practitioners are already working abroad.
In the FF Plus’s view, the current NHI Bill is unconstitutional. The so-called need certificates, in particular, are unconstitutional seeing as the objective is to prescribe where medical professionals may practise.
The ANC’s NHI plan is no more than an election gimmick that is not viable because government does not have the funds to implement it.
In addition to a court battle to stop to the law, South Africans have an opportunity in two weeks’ time to cast their ballot and rescue the country by ousting the ANC.
;
