NHI Bill is unrealistic & an election gimmick - Freedom Front Plus

CAPE TOWN - As the president prepares to sign the controversial National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law on Wednesday afternoon, the Freedom Front Plus has joined the chorus of backlash from opposition parties.

The party's leader, Pieter Groenewald, said that President Cyril Ramaphosa assenting to the bill, more than a decade in the offing, two weeks before an election, was a gimmick.

This is the only bill over the past five years for which the Presidency is hosting a public signing event.

Groenewald said the NHI was an unrealistic dream used by the African National Congress (ANC) to create the illusion of world-class healthcare for all.

"The opposite is going to happen because there’s no money for the implementation of this plan, and it will mean that taxes will have to be raised and taxpayers will have to pay more to ensure this National Insurance Act."

Groenewald said his party would join other political parties and civil organisations to challenge the constitutionality of the NHI in its current form.

"There can be coordination between the public sector and the private sector, but to prescribe to doctors where they may or may not have their practices, is totally unconstitutional as far as the Freedom Front Plus is concerned.”