The National Health Insurance (NHI) Act intends to establish an NHI Fund, which will purchase health services on behalf of users. Who will be tasked with overseeing the fund?
According to the act: “The [fund] board consists of not more than 11 persons, (a) who broadly reflect the diversity of the republic, including in respect of age, race, gender and disability; and (b) who are appointed by the minister, one of whom represents the minister on the board.”
Given the resources and money in the public and private healthcare sectors the NHI will centrally manage and administer, is there any reason to believe waste and corruption in public healthcare will stop at the estimated R2bn worth of corruption at Tembisa Hospital?
When it boils down to the hard reality of political patronage networks that incentivise corruption, why should South Africans accept the exponential risks built into the NHI?
Chris Hattingh
Centre for Risk Analysis
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