Solidarity said on Friday that it will fight what it called the “unconstitutional, unworkable and unaffordable” National Health Insurance (NHI) system in court.

In May, the organisation served court documents on the government.

On Thursday, newly elected Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the NHI Act was imperative and it must be implemented.

The Act was spearheaded by the African National Congress and signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa less than two weeks before the May 29 elections.

The Act was signed amid significant criticism from political parties and civil society organisations, with Solidarity saying the NHI Act was “impracticable, unnecessary and totally unaffordable”.

Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) economic researcher Theuns du Buisson noted that the organisation would rather see Cabinet members in the Government of National Unity moving away from NHI ideas which, he said, according to all indications, will result in disaster for all South Africans.

“It is precisely because South Africa is the most unequal country in the world that the NHI won’t function here. It will mean that the middle class and the rich – a shrinking group of people – will be further used as the State’s cash cow, without any efforts being made to really lift the poor out of poverty,” argued Du Buisson.

He highlighted that such a system could only function in a country where everyone contributed in equal measure, and even then it did not function well. 

“In terms of the extended definition of unemployment in South Africa, 42.4% of the population will not be able to contribute to the funding of the NHI at all. If it only pertained to inequality in healthcare outcomes, one might have been able to pay attention to the Minister,” he explained.

However, he noted that this inequality in healthcare stemmed from a mixture of “poverty and the State’s inability”.

“Contrary to what his proposal says, people getting world-class treatment in private hospitals is exactly what we want,” he added.

Solidarity said it would like to see State hospitals also move in that direction as much as possible, rather than private healthcare being dismantled by the NHI in the name of “equal care”.