OPINION - By all accounts the NHI is going to become a reality. Instead of fixing the current malaise in public hospitals, the government is pressing on with its NHI implementation.
The concept is a wonderful gesture in principle, but it is just not feasible with a dwindling tax collection and a sluggish economy.
For seniors and retirees, it just might be our worst nightmare.
I consider my wife and I a medical risk, based on our ages.
To this end, we pay for a medical aid and it’s no great plan either. But it gives one the freedom to choose a specialist and a hospital in time of need, and it gives one peace of mind.
Under the NHI, the health minister will be the Czar of health for all citizens.
The medical aid will not be useful, as we can only use it for complementary treatment, whatever that is supposed to mean.
As retirees our taxes will go up to pay for the NHI from our pension earnings, leaving less for us to live on.
Should one need a hip replacement, some bureaucrat in Pretoria will tell us where to go and when I can have it done.
Before that we will need to go to my district clinic first, then be referred to the district hospital, which my friends tell me is one hell of a hole, being overcrowded, filthy and, at most times, poorly functioning.
Just ask the cancer patients, who failed to get treatment from state hospitals in KZN. Sadly many did not survive.
Please spare us the pain of a delinquent and Orwellian NHI.
Just leave the medical aids alone for now. The NHI is a pain that we don’t need.
Paks Pakiriy Durban North
Daily News