PODCAST: Is there hope for changes to the NHI Act?

Will Ramaphosa take Busa’s worries about the NHI Act seriously after their meeting in September? Olive Shisana, his adviser on social policy, says the law will stay as is

October 07, 2024 at 6:00 am

By the end of October, Business Unity South Africa (Busa) — the country’s largest federation of business organisations — will submit a proposal to the president with solutions to its problems with the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act.
Busa refused to sign the country’s second presidential health compact in August, because it required signatories to explicitly support the NHI in its current form.
That means Busa, who was on the steering committee of the presidential health summit — which was held in 2023 — after which the compact document followed in 2024, won’t take part in any of the compact’s activities to better the health system.
In mid-September Busa met with the president, health minister Aaron Motsoaledi and deputy health minister Joe Phaahla to discuss its concerns — Busa supports expanding South Africans’ access to private medical aids rather than the banning of private schemes in their current form, as the NHI Act stipulates.
Is there hope for change? In this podcast, Mia Malan asks Olive Shisana, the president’s special adviser on social policy, who also co-ordinated the compact, and Busa’s CEO, Cas Coovadia, what to expect.