The SA Medical Association (SAMA), representing approximately 12,000 doctors, announced that it intends to contest the NHI Act in the Pretoria High Court, reported Business Day(2 April 2025).
SAMA chair, Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, said if implemented, the NHI would ‘collapse’ the healthcare system, and that troubling fine print in the Act ‘violates constitutional rights of patients and doctors’.”
According to Mzukwa their application was different from the ongoing challenge in court launched by the SA Private Practitioners’ Forum (SAPPF) and the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF), and it was “probably the most comprehensive out of all of those that have been filed thus far”.
Other key issues SAMA is raising in its legal challenge include:
• The handling of complaints about poor service delivery by a single, centralised investigative unit within the NHI fund’s national office – which SAME views as “wholly inadequate” for the effective resolution of patient grievances;
• A lack of clarity in the Act about which services will be covered;
• The unclear system for the procurement of medical supplies;
• The consequences the Act will have for healthcare professionals, who will be required to meet “impossible accreditation standards” and work well beyond their normal capacity for less income; and
• A lack of provisions in the Act to insure private sector doctors against medico-legal claims, despite these doctors operating within NHI protocols.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi argues that the act is essential for rescuing South Africa’s healthcare system.