A South African labour union and a medical-insurance industry body have challenged the government’s new health-insurance law in court.

Employee group Solidarity filed court papers on May 24 seeking to overturn the National Health Insurance Act, according to an emailed statement. The legislation was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa on May 15.

“Solidarity believes the NHI is unconstitutional as well as being unworkable and unaffordable,” the labour union said. “It deprives health-care workers as well as health-care users of choice.”

The Board of Healthcare Funders that represents some of the country’s biggest medical insurers — including the Government Employees Medical Scheme — filed papers on Monday asking the court to set aside Ramaphosa’s decision to sign the act, Netwerk24 reported. The BHF argues the president ignored several presentations on the unconstitutionality of the NHI, the news website said, citing the papers.

The so-called NHI aims to fix South Africa’s dysfunctional health system and make access to treatment more equitable, while banning the private sector from insuring treatment covered under the plan. Opposition parties and business lobby groups have argued the program is unconstitutional and have also vowed to challenge it in court.

The application talks about procurement “which is unconstitutional, which it is not, and secondly, it talks about there being no money bill — I table a money bill every year, so there’s more politics than fact.”

The government under the ruling African National Congress will focus on working out how to purchase services from public and private health-care in a pilot project across the nation’s nine provinces over the next two years, he said.