Ramaphosa: All South Africans Should Rally Behind The National Health Insurance

Cyril Ramaphosa

The deliberations by Parliament on the National Health Insurance Bill are soon to enter a new phase as the Portfolio Committee on Health’s country-wide public hearings wrap up.

These hearings, held in a number of places around the country, have shown that there is broad support for fundamental change in our health care system.
 
Participants have made a number of proposals and have spoken about their views on National Health Insurance (NHI), personal experiences of illness, trauma, disability and suffering – and the difficulties they have had in accessing health care when they need it.
 
It is these experiences that inform South Africa’s support for the global goal of universal health coverage. This goal has become a major aim for health reform in many countries and a priority objective of World Health Organization (WHO). It is instructive that WHO defines universal health coverage as a system