The President signs the biggest, arguably stupidest, law in SA’s history—the NHI Act.
ON WEDNESDAY, 15 May 2024, the President signed the biggest, and arguably stupidest, law in South African history—the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act.
What makes it the ‘biggest’ is that, if implemented, even partially, it would cost more, and directly impact more people, than anything previously imagined. What makes it the ‘stupidest’ is that it is impossible to understand, and to the extent comprehensible, impossible to implement.
It gets worse. It is impossible to know what is intended other than unprecedented incompetence, bureaucracy, waste, and corruption.
Even the Act’s name is idiotic. Instead of providing insurance, it prohibits insurance. Instead of defining ‘health’ or ‘healthcare’, it is silent on the matter.
No one, including unknowable future minsters, has the slightest idea whether…