The National Health Insurance (NHI) is not the solution for access to meaningful healthcare services, according to the Public Servants Association (PSA).
The PSA, which represents more than 230 public sector employees, said it supports efforts to ensure universal access to healthcare and recognises that access to healthcare is a fundamental human right.
PSA spokesperson Reuben Maleka said: “It is, however, important to emphasize that this should be meaningful access with quality service, adequate medical supplies, clean and fully equipped facilities, adequate staffing with experience and expertise.
“Without these fundamental aspects in place, the NHI is doomed to be a failure.”
Maleka said for many years there have been challenges of the decline in the quality of public services owing to various reasons such as human capital flight, poor infrastructure maintenance, lack of accountability and corruption, among others.
“The question is if the NHI would yield better benefits for public servants and how it would impact on their disposable income as many of them are already subscribers to a variety of medical aid schemes.
“The notion that workers could be expected to pay for private medical insurance and the NHI simultaneously, induces anxiety amongst public sector employees.
“The priority of health reform in South Africa must be the rehabilitation of the public health sector. This can be best be achieved by a competent, non-partisan public health service, free of corruption and political interference.
“South Africa’s two-tier healthcare system is not the cause of problems in the sector. The demise of the private sector system through the introduction of a single purchaser model of the NHI and the imposition of a tax, equivalent to the average medical aid spend, will also not produce effective management and administration in the public healthcare sector.”
The organisation is also calling for a progressive realisation of the right of access to healthcare within the resource constraints of the state.
This proposed mechanism, according to PSA, should strive to make healthcare accountable, affordable, and efficient through strengthening what works in the public sector and removing deficiencies.
“This must be planned and implemented in a responsible, affordable, and sustained manner. The goal to achieve universal access to quality healthcare must not push us into implementing any and every programme without considering efficacy and effectiveness.
“The PSA is furthermore concerned about the future of medical aid schemes and how these will be incorporated into the NHI, or else this could be the beginning of the end of medical aid schemes.
“The introduction of the NHI may reverse gains achieved for public servants in respect of access to quality healthcare,” Maleka said.
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