APA-Cape Town (South Africa) South African lawmakers have passed a long-awaited health insurance legislation that provides for creation of a fund to assist all South Africans to access healthcare.
The National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill was passed during a sitting of the National Assembly on Tuesday in a development seen as positive step towards the levelling of the playing field in a country where over 50 percent of the population has no access to adequate healthcare.
The legislation, which now awaits approval by the National Council of Provinces before being forwarded to President Cyril Ramaphosa for signature, would see the introduction of a special NHI Fund that would pool public and private resources.
It is one of the key policy instruments that have been pushed by the governing tripartite alliance comprising the African National Congress, South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions.
“South Africa cannot transform and upgrade its public healthcare sector without eliminating the imbalances between the private and public health sectors, which are skewed in favour of the minority-servicing private health sector,” the SACP said in a statement on Wednesday.
It added: “It (NHI bill) is a milestone in what should be a continuing struggle for quality healthcare for all — against the background of the overall agenda by the reactionary opposition to NHI.”
NM/jn/APA