Tag: National Health Insurance (NHI)

South Africa’s headline unemployment rate hit a record high of 34.4% in the second quarter of 2021, up from 32.6% in the first three months of the year as businesses shed staff resulting from the devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Economic freedom enshrines personal choice, voluntary exchange and protection of private property. It is the freedom to start a business or hire an employee without government interference, or to invest and trade with whomever you please.

Keep up to date on the most important Financial Services Regulation developments in South Africa in June 2021.

New research provides crucial analysis and insight into South Africa’s proposed National Health Insurance and the dramatic, detrimental impact it will have on both the private and public health sectors. The research paper, 'An Overview of South Africa’s Health Assets and the National Health Insurance Policy', formed the basis for oral evidence provided to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health on the NHI Bill, prior to Parliament convening on the matter today.

Reports of alleged corruption plaguing the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), one of the vehicles being touted to administer the National Health Insurance (NHI) should not come as a surprise. We note with concern these reports, and stresses to both government and citizens the crucial lesson that must be learned from this scandal.

Government's first duty is to protect the rights of citizens. Instead, ours has prioritised yet another bailout of R10.5 billion for the failed South African Airways (SAA), with a further R6.5 billion in the pipeline. This while citizens die in hospitals lacking basic personal protective equipment, staff and oxygen supplies, and there remains no vaccine on the horizon.

According to Stats SA, the country has about 58.8 million people living in the country. Of those, 8.8 million pay for private medical cover, and the Council for Medical Schemes’ annual report shows that they pay a collective sum of R179.8 billion a year, at an average contribution rate per member of R1,695.10 per month.

The Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, delivered his much anticipated Medium-term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday, 28 October 2020. Hard choices and reform implementation are key to achieving five-year stabilisation plan.

The South African economy, like many emerging and developing economies, has high levels of poverty. As with many such countries, there are three primary objectives to reducing poverty, unemployment and inequity. These three objectives take precedence over almost all other goals.

Sometimes the focus should not be on what was said, but rather on what was left unsaid. The Supplementary Budget tabled by Minister Tito Mboweni on 24 June 2020, centred around the potentially disastrous trajectory of South Africa’s fiscal affairs.