Opinion: As the daughter of a father battling cancer, I hope government’s NHI execution is painless

As an ordinary citizen with a terminally-ill family member, my entire life has become so incredibly intertwined with the country’s healthcare system. So much so, that I’m curious to see just how effectively the South African government will roll out the new National Health Insurance (NHI) programme.

Goodness knows this country’s healthcare structure needs a serious overhaul.

For years now, many South Africans – whether privileged or disadvantaged – have been left feeling let down by our medical systems.

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Healthcare workers often give their best at public healthcare facilities but South African public hospitals are still the setting of far too many horror stories, where under-resourcing and overcrowding has turned these institutions into crucibles of adversity and hardship.

Through effective marketing directed at the privileged, they are conditioned to dread the ramshackle of the public sector and in response, take up all the healthcare plans they can possibly afford.

Despite paying significant amounts of money towards these plans, they are still saddled with private sector out-of-benefit payments, which many are still forking out their life saving to pay if only to avoid the horror of public healthcare.

No matter your economic situation, often our relationship with healthcare in this country is an abusive one, where the sick pay a price beyond reason.

It’s all just so unfair.

A greater sense of justice is needed.

That is why our government has come up with the NHI programme. But will it really work?  

The real price of illness

My dad has stage four cancer and has been declared terminal. They have not given him long to live.

Cancer is as monstrous as the mainstream narratives around the illness have led us to believe. It strips one of their dignity and robs them of basic ease of existence in every waking moment of what they are left with.

It is even torturous to bear witness to, day after day, as you look at your loved one, certain you would do just about anything to help them.

For those – like me – who are perceived to have the resources, you do just this.

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With the disease stripping away so much of his sense of worth, I was ready to do whatever it took to restore the bits and pieces of it through the care he receives.

Strategic private sector promotion and media horror stories have taught me that sort of care comes from the, often exorbitant, private medical sector.

He is going through so much already, I cannot bring myself to subject him to the inefficiencies and long wait times of our under-resourced public healthcare system. And so, I allow myself to succumb to the exploitative tendencies of private healthcare.

“Here, take everything I have accumulated over the years – anything to ease the pain. If that is the price I must pay for ‘privilege’ then so be it.” And let me tell you, this insatiable creature –  in the form of healthcare bills –  takes. It takes and takes and takes.

Good service

Fortunately, the private health sector lives up to its hype. The medical professionals here are kind and considerate. They are well versed in the balance of pain management and offer him care and privacy that does not infringe in any additional measure on his dignity. For this, most nights I sleep easy. I will pay off my home loan later in life, as long as he receives the care he deserves.

But my father isn’t the only person that deserves such respectable care.

Every individual grappling with an illness deserves to be bestowed with the utmost dignity and care they are inherently entitled to. It is an essential facet of their fundamental human right.

The road to recovery should not be marred by undue stress within overburdened and understaffed hospital environments.

Instead, they should be enveloped in an atmosphere of tranquillity and reverence, receiving the peace and respect that their well-being warrants.

I think of those family members with ill loved ones who despite giving their all, still don’t have enough to appease the insatiable creature. Their love, respect and desire for their ailing family member cannot be less genuine than mine. It is for this reason I hope the NHI will really address the issue of inequality in our healthcare system.

At the same time, I hope it will not reduce the quality of service we currently receive in private healthcare.

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While it’s important to ensure fairness and level the playing field, finding a balance is crucial to preserve the efficiency and excellence that private healthcare offers. Imposing excessive bureaucratic procedures and regulations on private healthcare providers could hinder the personalised care patients rely on.

I hope the NHI just finds the right vein to feed through and gets it right the first time, without having to submit the sick and ailing to a painful trial and error phase.

I hope that the government will not only look to spread the load but also manage resources to up its game in terms of quality of care.

I hope that the NHI emerges as that one beacon of hope we’ve all been waiting for.