Why you should keep your medical aid: NHI implementation years away

Experts are warning medical aid members not to cancel their memberships, as the National Health Insurance (NHI) will probably take years to implement.

Medicare 24’s chief executive Mike van Wyk said the constitution says people have the right to choose their medical aid and how they want to manage their health.

Biggest hurdle for ANC

“That’s the biggest hurdle for the ANC,” he said. “They will have to change the constitution and for that, they need a majority vote.”

Van Wyk said in terms of the NHI, those who had a medical aid would use it only for specific procedures.

“It’s a very grey area,” he said. “If you are ill, you cannot just walk into a general practitioner [GP] practice and see a doctor.

“You will have to phone a government call centre and they will place you in a radius of 20km from a GP.

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“Every GP will be visited by the department of health and get approved as a practice for the NHI.”

He asked: “Why would the department want to audit us when 95% of all government facilities are failing their audits?”

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Don’t cancel your medical aid membership

Goudvis financial advisory’s financial advisor, Wesley Birch, recommended not cancelling medical aid membership.

“[The ANC] are just desperate for votes and they have to do something.

“They know there isn’t the money for it, we know there isn’t the money for it, even the homeless know there isn’t money for this,” he said.

“It will take about 10 to 15 years to roll out. Medical aid is not going anywhere soon.”

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