Hospital body goes to court to challenge NHI

[Nat Quinn]

The Hospital Association of SA (HASA) − whose members include prominent companies Netcare, Life Healthcare and Mediclinic − is launching a legal challenge to the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.

HASA joins the trade union Solidarity, the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF), and the SA Private Practitioners’ Forum in filing court papers challenging the NHI.

President Cyril Ramaphosa controversially signed the NHI Bill into law in mid-May 2024, just two weeks before the election.

HASA’s legal challenge was filed in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria last month. It seeks the setting aside of the NHI plan as a whole, on the grounds that it is constitutionally invalid on several grounds.

First, NHI violates Section 27 of the Constitution (the right to access health services). The complete overhaul of the system and its funding would disrupt access to healthcare.

The government also had failed to prove NHI was affordable.

An analysis by Discovery shows that the additional R200 billion a year needed to introduce the NHI would require a 31% increase in personal income tax or a 6.5 percentage point hike in VAT.

These taxes would still only increase the amount that the government spent on healthcare per person to R684 per month − 71% less than the R2 346 per month spent by private medical schemes.

Second, NHI prohibits medical schemes from covering any services covered by the state.

Medical schemes would struggle to continue operating and this would force all healthcare service providers to rely on a single funder.

Finally, NHI will treat asylum-seekers differently from refugees and therefore it unlawfully infringes upon their rights.

Melanie da Costa, chairperson of HASA, said: “We remain firmly committed to participating constructively while the legal process unfolds.”

 

source:Hospital body goes to court to challenge NHI – Daily Friend

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