Health insurance brings hope

THE future looks promising for a 74-year-old resident from Khabezela Village situated near Corovaca who suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.

Joseph Mthembu said he is delighted by the government’s decision to finally launch National Health Insurance (NHI) for the poor which provides essential health care. Cabinet has approved the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill which is expected to be tabled in parliament before the end of the year.

The NHI is a health financing system that is designed to pool funds to provide access to quality affordable personal health services and to ensure universal health coverage for all South Africans based on their health needs, irrespective of their socio-economic status.

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According to private medical schemes covers approximately 16 per cent of the population, with most of the principal members of these schemes working in the formal sector. Mthembu said he would like to see change in the public clinics more especially on the services rendered.

“I usually go to the Redhill Clinic which is very far and always has long queues before you could get help. Every month I collect my medication from the clinic but due to huge numbers of people that are served, sometimes I end up arriving late at home. This new innovation will aim at eradicating the large numbers of the people who continue to die prematurely and suffer unnecessarily from poor health. Treatable conditions such as tuberculosis, blood pressure and diabetes are not being treated on time and preventable diseases are not being prevented,” said Mthembu.

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The Khabazela residents expressed their concerns on the unavailability of health clinics in the area.

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