While conducting an oversight visit to Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his view that the hospital is a blueprint for the future of the National Health Insurance (NHI). However, 75% of South African professionals believe that the NHI will worsen healthcare delivery in the country.
Image credit: Markus Frieauff on Unsplash
This was one of the findings in Profmed’s State of Health report, which surveyed professionals’ general perception of public and private healthcare services.
Healthcare challenges
While speaking to Michael Avery on Business Day TV, Profmed CEO Craig Comrie said: “We get a very clear indication that in the private sector, affordability is the main challenge.”
“In the public sector, the two big items that came through are the skills accessed in the public sector and being able to access the doctors, specialists quickly.”
Positively, the survey revealed that 70% of respondents were satisfied with the healthcare system, aligning with the World Health Organisation's (WHO) index on universal healthcare coverage.
“What that means is that there's still room to improve. And I gather that's where the economic and the healthcare reform debates have started to try and find how we leap forward in terms of improvement of healthcare for everybody who consumes health in South Africa,” said Comrie.
Distrust in NHI
Regarding NHI, the respondents expressed a lack of confidence in the NHI being rolled out, with 90% of them feeling it would not make a real difference.
“Very negative views in terms of the policy, and it probably points to the vacuum on how to finance. How do you implement such a bold and significant step in South Africa, and is there enough finance behind it?
“What are the benefits that you are going to access, and am I going to stand to lose something that I currently have in terms of my medical scheme cover and the services I currently access?” asked Comrie.
Conversely, the survey also revealed that 60% of respondents understood the complex NHI policy, and 40% would advocate for mandatory medical schemes if the NHI were not implemented.
Comrie believes that these professionals know what’s up when it comes to the NHI: “It's not an unusual statement, and I guess the professionals are close to knowing what's happening in the marketplace.
“They know what's happening in healthcare, specifically, and so they knew exactly that the mandatory membership would create affordability within the medical scheme space, while creating less pressure in a public sector space.”
Regardless, he says, “we need to start implementing realistic reforms that deliver better healthcare services to all consumers of health in South Africa.”
