Trade union Solidarity has joined a list of those who are taking government to court over the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.
Earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the NHI Bill into law amid strong criticism from political parties and civil society organisations.
The objective of the NHI l is to provide universal access to quality health care for all South Africans as enshrined in the Constitution.
The Constitution recognizes healthcare as a fundamental human right stating that “everyone has the right to have access to health care service and the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of these rights and no one may be refused emergency medical treatment.”
In its court papers, Solidarity says the NHI Act is technically flawed. According to Connie Mulder, Solidarity’s spokesperson, the National Health Insurance is a very complex beast.
“It is a piece of legislation that has different phases that needs to happen at different dates and that is why, in the legislation itself in Article 59, it stipulates that the President should specify what piece of the legislation gets enacted at what date during the proclamation order the signing ceremony.”
Mulder added that this is done to create certainty for medical aids as well as medical practitioners so that they know what is coming and when.
