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Healthcare centres such as the Unjani Clinic in Diepsloot is proof that the ANC government is trying to sell a false narrative about the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill. This is the focus of AfriForum’s latest video which shows how private clinics provide an affordable service to poor communities. With this video, the civil rights organisation is once again taking a stand against NHI. 

According to AfriForum, the proponents of NHI paint a distorted picture of private healthcare in South Africa in order to present NHI as the only solution. In this image, the private sector is managed only by greedy businessmen and doctors and used exclusively by rich patients with medical aid. To correct this “injustice”, it is then demanded that private medical aids may no longer ensure basic health services at all. 

AfriForum’s video reveals that there are indeed several role players in the private health sector who focus on poor communities and provide affordable services to uplift these communities. If the NHI Bill is fully implemented, the continued existence of these clinics will be put in jeopardy.

According to Louis Boshoff, AfriForum’s spokesperson on NHI, this bill is a typical wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is presented as free healthcare for all, but in truth it is nothing more than the deprivation of freedom and economic sustainability of the health industry. “We have experienced first-hand how benevolent healthcare workers provide an indispensable service to a needy community and simply expect a fair private compensation. NHI will cause great damage to these services and all South Africans will be worse off,” explains Boshoff.

Issued by AfriForum