🇿🇦 Controversial "Universal Health Bill" Signed Into Law

✍️ South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the controversial National Health Insurance Bill into law today. The NHI is a proposed healthcare reform aiming to provide universal health coverage in South Africa.

▪️With the signing of the NHI bill, Ramaphosa pledged to end "health-care apartheid."

▪️ The legislation provides a framework for the provision of universal care through a state-run fund and will ban the private sector from financing treatment covered under the plan.

▪️While there is a widespread support for reform of a system that sees a multibillion rand private health-care industry servicing 16% of the population and the balance relying on overburdened public facilities, critics of the NHI bill argue that the government’s proposals haven’t been properly costed, are unconstitutional and could be successfully challenged in court.

💸 According to some analysts, the state-run fund requires an estimated R1 trillion to pay for the scheme with the bill entirely footed by the overburdened and shrinking South African taxpayer base.

📝 "The irony of this bill is that South Africa already has a free public health care system, but it was destroyed by the ANC over the last 30 years just like every other state-run facility. In essence, the NHI will create a massive pool of funds that the ANC can loot while removing access to private health care primarily paid for and used by whites."