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Solidarity is ready to launch a full-on assault against the planned National Health Insurance (NHI) and is making an urgent appeal to the public to support its actions against this destructive scheme all along.

The NHI Bill is now yet another step closer to being passed as law after the ANC used its large majority in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to pass the Bill unaltered.

Should one last appeal to Pres Cyril Ramaphosa to halt the NHI fall on deaf ears too, we will be heading to court about the NHI where Solidarity will go all out to stop it.

“All the pleas have been made and all the warnings have been issued as to why the NHI will have disastrous consequences for all South Africans,” Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) said.

“We have shown how the cost of the so-called “free health care” will be recovered from South Africans as additional taxes – something that will no doubt ruin households financially.

“We have shown how it will affect the prospects of health care workers and medical staff to such an extent that they may be left with no choice but to consider career moves or even emigration.

“And it has been cautioned that a health care system left in the hands of those who have wrecked Eskom, Transnet and SAA, will not only be the death knell of our economy, but will literally also cost human lives.”

At every public opportunity to do so, Solidarity gave its comments, each time highlighting the unworkability of the NHI. Efforts were made to illustrate the dangers of the proposed NHI on the basis of cost reports and doctors’ reports. 

Nevertheless, first the National Assembly and now the National Council of Provinces have approved the Bill.
According to Du Buisson the promise of free health care aims to win votes for the ANC, even if the promise is based on unsubstantiated claims and even lies.

“What the ANC promises cannot be executed, and Solidarity hopes as many people as possible will realise it. We agree that medical aid premiums are expensive to the extent of being almost unaffordable and that our health care system needs a rethinking soon.

“However, the answers certainly do not lie in an unworkable, unaffordable and unnecessary NHI, and even less so in one managed by a dishonest and incompetent government,” Du Buisson said. 

Solidarity is determined to fight these plans to capture ownership of our health in court. Should Pres. Ramaphosa also add his signature to the NHI Act, our legal team is ready to start litigation immediately.

Issued by Solidarity