South Africa, get involved in discussing the National Health Insurance Bill. It’s vital to your future.

Universal health coverage is essential and not negotiable.

The question is: will the NHI Bill, in its current form, get us to this vital goal? If not, what urgent changes are needed to make high-quality universal health coverage a reality for our country?

Access to healthcare affects every single person in the country so we need a national debate about the Bill.

Widespread concerns have been raised about the Bill, the fund it proposes establishing and the implications for access to healthcare.

OUTA would like to see the concerns directed into constructive suggestions that will take this debate forward.

The Bill was introduced to Parliament in July and is now due to go through a public participation process as it goes through both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. We expect public hearings and calls for comment during this process.

Over the next few weeks, OUTA will discuss the Bill with experts and hear from the public, with a view to looking for solutions for a universal health coverage system.

We will use this input to help compile our submission to Parliament during the public participation process.

When our submission is ready, we will place a copy of it on this webpage.

South Africa doesn’t have the resources to make mistakes.

We cannot get it wrong. Let’s work together to fix healthcare in South Africa.

Please send us your comments & suggestions.