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SA cannot afford National Health Insurance: Economist

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A senior economist has told the Tax Indaba 2019 in Sandton, north of Johannesburg, that the country cannot afford the  National Health Insurance (NHI).

Nedbank economist Busisiwe Radebe says government cannot implement something where the pilot projects show it has absolutely failed.

She also says the country does not have the cash. The NHI Bill was approved by Cabinet in July and has been tabled before Parliament.

But Radebe says there are too many challenges.

“We need to fix Eskom that’s the most important thing before we can fix the NHI.  If we were growth wise somewhere else, somewhere higher than this, I could think about it but even if I look at the NHI in the UK somehow we are implementing something where the pilot has said it has failed in most of the sites.”

“There wasn’t a baseline and we are measuring something where we have actually failed in the measurement and I want to implement that. We cannot afford it, full stop. But we do have money that goes to health in the budget and we need to look at those hospitals and say how can we make those more efficient.”

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