Making the National Health Insurance Scheme Work for All South Africans - Can It Be Achieved?
Channel: SACSIS
Date: 2013-08-07

On 2 August 2013, The South African Civil Society Information Service and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation South Africa Office (FES) co-hosted a panel discussion on the theme, "Making the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHI) Work for All South Africans - Can It Be Achieved?"

The South African government's NHI scheme presents an important opportunity to develop a better healthcare system that works for all its citizens. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to close the gap between public and private healthcare and develop a unified world-class healthcare system that all South Africans could have confidence in -- but how do we achieve this goal? 

The questions we put to our panelists were: How does our government intend to develop a unified healthcare system that all South Africans feel is safe and affordable to use? What are the responsibilities of the state, the medical fraternity and the public in general towards developing such a system? Most importantly, how can we use the NHI as an opportunity to build greater social cohesion, in South Africa, around the delivery of an important social good that all South Africans can share in equally?

Panelists:

Prof. Robert Van Niekerk, Director and Professor of Social Policy at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes University.

Prof. David Sanders, Emeritus Professor and founding Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape.

Prof. Louis George Reynolds, Lecturer, Education Development Unit, University of Cape Town, Faculty of Health Sciences and formerly of the Red Cross Children's Hospital.

Mark Heywood, Executive Director, Section 27.

To listen to podcasts from the event, please follow this link:
http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/1750