Attorney Michael de Broglio on: South Africa, Law, Politics, Attorneys, Sport, Photography, Technology, Gadgets, Media, Crime, Road Accidents Fund,
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I was a bit surprised to hear the Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize, attack the critics of the NHI by saying it will be run as well as the Road Accident Fund. I don’t think that the Road Accident Fund is particularly well-run, but Minister Mkhize cites it as an example as to the government’s ability to run the new proposed NHI as “… they have set a precedent of good governance and accountability.”
I have expressed my opinion many times and that is that one of the reasons the Road Accident Fund has the financial issues that it does is precisely because of the way it is mismanaged, with ever increasing staff numbers who do not actually make settlement offers in cases where clearly they should. I feel terribly sorry for anybody who has to submit claims to the NHI if it is going to be dealt with on the same basis that claims handlers in the Road Accident Fund deal with claims - by just outsourcing them to their attorneys! A lot of people – and doctors - are not going to be paid within reasonable times and I wonder how happy medical professionals will be then to see NHI patients? I foresee tremendous problems if the NHI is going to run “as well as” the RAF!
Posted by Michael de Broglio on Wednesday 29-Jan-20
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Comments
Bianca Taljaard said:
on Wednesday 26-Feb-20 08:30 AM
This will never work, not in a million years, I will just watch this fall apart to
Nikita said:
on Tuesday 25-Feb-20 11:57 AM
I wonder who comes up with these master plans sometimes. We have such bigger problems in this country that need to be focused on. For example they should start with upgrading our hospitals and the equipment and security for our nurses and doctors. This upgrade would start the process of alleviating some of the causes of the medical malpractice claims that come about.
Roxanne said:
on Thursday 13-Feb-20 12:57 PM
I really don't think this is going to succeed, just look at the state of our government hospitals. i would rather stick with my medical aid
Ashleigh said:
on Wednesday 12-Feb-20 04:31 PM
I would not suggest National Health Insurance purely based on poor services in this country. Look at all the departments within the country and the state that they are in. Post offices keep closing here. If things were run better within the departments that we currently have now, then maybe we would have faith in other projects that they have in mind.
Claudia B said:
on Monday 10-Feb-20 08:49 AM
I would most diffidently agree with Dasanya on this one, our country needs a lot of work before we can try to implement something like this.
Sinead said:
on Monday 10-Feb-20 08:40 AM
Honestly, I do wonder if and how the NHI will succeed in our country. Sometimes the RAF do surprise us but if the NHI is run in the same way, then we will never know.
We still need to build up our country before trying to implement all these amazing ideas.
Michelle D said:
on Friday 07-Feb-20 04:42 PM
South Africa at the moment astounds me. We are trying to implement all of these radical first world policies like NHI and tablets in every school and even Caselines for our judicial system. All of these things would be great to implement if the underlying structures actually worked! We are not fixing the basic problems such as staffing and training and general hygiene in our state hospitals and now the government just wants to effectively make every hospital a state hospital? You can polish a turd but it's still a turd - we need to fix the basic problems before trying to implement all these advancements.
Kendall said:
on Friday 07-Feb-20 04:27 PM
The NHI will never work in South Africa. Through poor management, incompetent staff and corruption, it is going to be yet another failed project. Money is being wasted on projects that are poorly implemented and and improperly managed. The current state of our government healthcare facilities is one of the biggest reflections of this.
Dasanya said:
on Friday 07-Feb-20 03:34 PM
I don't see how the NHI would work in South Africa. The current state of our government hospitals speaks volumes not to mention the stories we hear of hospital staff mishandling ill patients. The RAF is incompetent and definitely not "well run" as Minister Mkhize stated. For these institutions to function, we need competency and transparency!
Melissa said:
on Friday 07-Feb-20 11:06 AM
This is ridiculous and there are a lot of unsatisfied clients. What a mess.....
Cornelie said:
on Friday 07-Feb-20 10:28 AM
We who work with the Fund everyday will know that they are not runned well. Clients complain every day they are not getting refunded on their undertakings we wait for payments for months it can be run much better.
Kayla said:
on Friday 07-Feb-20 08:59 AM
"It will run as well as the Road Accident Fund" , Just like how they run this country and now they want to run the NHI just the same. Its a set up for disaster! Not even government hospitals provide the sufficient medical care for citizens who cant afford Medical Aid. They are naive.
Thabitha said:
on Friday 07-Feb-20 07:49 AM
They are jeopardising with practitioner career's and people life's here, run like RAF Mkhize must really do his homework before he talk's.
Nicolle said:
on Thursday 06-Feb-20 05:36 PM
I am unable to make it past that comment. That comment! The "will be run as well as the Road Accident Fund." That must be a joke because I have not stopped nonsensically laughing!
Shristi said:
on Thursday 06-Feb-20 05:29 PM
All I see is a lot of angry and frustrated clients as well as medical practitioners. I think that if they want the NHI to work they would have to have an exceptional administrative team and very competent employees else its going to be just as badly run as the Road Accident Fund.
Bronwyn said:
on Thursday 06-Feb-20 04:57 PM
I see a lot of unhappy and frustrated clients and doctors.
Prishani said:
on Tuesday 04-Feb-20 05:56 PM
The minister is obviously very misinformed! This is actually very concerning because they appear to think that the RAF is running smoothly when they are faced with some very serious administrative problems!
Lourien said:
on Tuesday 04-Feb-20 05:01 PM
I can not believe that our government is saying that they will run the NHI as smoothly as the RAF. If you look at what the RAF offers injured parties, when they go to the RAF directly its sad to see that they under settle their matters where some matters are never even opened. Just thinking of having a national health insurance is worrying, I cannot see how this would work in a perfect world. You might be placed on a waiting list for 12 months just to submit a claim or see a doctor.
patrick said:
on Tuesday 04-Feb-20 05:00 PM
This is another trial and error project .After it had raked in huge debts, they will then call it off.
Melandre' said:
on Tuesday 04-Feb-20 08:41 AM
It is an idealistic concept however unfortunately state-run facilities are largely mismanaged and badly administrated. I personally wouldn't call RAF well-run or well managed. SA is suffering a large brain drain due to these issues we face, I can only foresee us losing more doctors and educated staff if this is going to be administered as RAF.
Tersia said:
on Monday 03-Feb-20 10:13 AM
Mmmm… Wonder how that is going to go. My guess would be not very well, but hey maybe they surprise us. I think to anyone in Government they would obviously think that everything is running smoothly - just so they can dodge the major issues going on in this country and not take responsibility for anything.
Henrietta said:
on Friday 31-Jan-20 09:11 AM
I also foresee a lot of problems. I can just imagine how many experts we will lose with this program. The state that our government hospitals are in and the service we get is absolutely horrible. The horror stories you hear just forces one to take out medical aid which is a fortune just to get better services. I don't think this system will work and if it's even run half the way RAF is run we going to have more problems.
Tamaryn said:
on Friday 31-Jan-20 09:00 AM
I can't actually believe that Zweli Mkhize would use the RAF as an example in support of the NHI. I'm speechless.
Victoria said:
on Friday 31-Jan-20 08:48 AM
I agree that the road accident fund has financial issues because it is not being managed properly. I think management of any company is very important, managers need to have a vision and be able to make decisions based on what is best for their company. People are not going to be happy when trying to submit claims to the NHI because it is just going to be another mismanaged organisation.
Helen said:
on Friday 31-Jan-20 07:39 AM
Great Idea "Free for all"! Will it work? How long doctors will wait for their services to be paid by government? We all can see clearly that our tax money is not enough to cover all the government expenses.
Personally I do not have a very good feeling about National Health Insurance. Right now we can still find doctor who is willing to help, but what is going to happen if there will be no more doctor left in the country when National Health Insurance will come on board!
Natasha said:
on Thursday 30-Jan-20 04:18 PM
I Don't think the NHI is a good idea, if they think its well managed i got news for them. Everything related to government is a mess. I don't know how long its going to take before they realize whats actually going on.
Thembi said:
on Thursday 30-Jan-20 02:54 PM
NHI is going to be run as well as the RAF I don't think the doctors and the clients are going to be happy the client and the doctors they going to be frustrated
Courtney said:
on Thursday 30-Jan-20 02:49 PM
Anything Government related is not well managed at all! The RAF on the other side is even worse, when speaking to someone you actually sometimes have to explain to them how to do they're jobs.
Melissa van Tellingen said:
on Thursday 30-Jan-20 02:21 PM
The Road Accident fund is definitely not a well run organisation and anyone who thinks that has a bug surprise waiting for them. I agree with Karien and Sujata in that it would work great in a first world country, but it seems like this is just an opportunity for another government organisation to be mismanaged.
Nicolene said:
on Thursday 30-Jan-20 08:45 AM
We deal with the Road Accident Fund on a daily basis and it's definitely not as well-managed as they say. If they run the NHI the same way they run the RAF then there'll be a lot of frustrated clients. Let's wait and see as everything that is run by the government is normally a long process.
Sujata said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 04:40 PM
The NHI is certainly a system that can operate effectively in a first world country but in South Africa with the many Issues of mismanagement and maladministration its difficult to think that the project will be able to live up to first world nations.
Daniella said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 03:38 PM
It amazes me that the institution to look up to is the Road Accident Fund. I feel that instead of bringing in the NHI in the government hospitals need to be managed properly. for me it seems like they are just trying to drop the responsibility of "trying" to properly run government hospitals by slapping a pretty band-aid on it which is the NHI.
Karien van Zyl said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 02:13 PM
The main aim of the NHI is to provide universal healthcare, which is a great idea based on first world systems. The problem is that the culture across state-run facilities in South Africa is poor operational management which render these facilities ineffective. Medical professionals are also becoming more outspoken and the majority of them would probably immigrate if this proposed legislation is implemented. My suggestion would be to listen to the doctors, they are the one's who will be working under the NHI and without them there won't be a South African health system at all.
Ziyanda said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 01:24 PM
I don't see this NHI being well run if they were able to do that their Public Health System would not be the mess it is right now. I feel like instead of finding solutions to the Public Health System they are taking the easy way which will only lead to even bigger problems.
Sarah said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 01:03 PM
Everything that is run by the government, will be a long and frustrating process. They obviously don’t deal with the RAF on a daily bases. Again our tax money is going to something that won’t work out .
Lucretia said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 11:58 AM
I have spoken to drs, physios, etc about this NHI and I have gotten such bad feedback regarding the way this is going to affect the man on the street. One of the physio's I spoke to who worked for a number of years in Canada said it fails their people terribly, a first world country - God help us in our 3rd world country.
Megan said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 11:21 AM
I don't think the NHI is a good idea and I agree there will be a lot of problems with medical professionals. This is just another way to drive skilled individuals out of our country, which we need for the betterment of it, and be saddled with falling further to junk status.
Bianca Niemann said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 08:57 AM
It just goes to show how oblivious they are, thinking that the Road Accident Fund is well run. Have they not seen how mismanaged it is? This is going to cause a lot of outrage if it is going to be handled the same way.
Mathilda Du Preez said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 08:37 AM
If the National Health Insurance is going to be run "as well as" the RAF I see a lot of frustrated ,unhappy clients and doctors in the future.
#shame
Michelle Smillie said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 08:07 AM
Unfortunately, this is another example of the incompetence of the Government. If they really think that the RAF is run smoothly and proficiently, then the people in our Government is most certainly not suitable for politics. On the other hand, this might also be a way of pulling the wool over the country's eyes, as the saying goes. Either way, it is most certainly not to the benefit of the citizens.
Alexis said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 07:48 AM
Well, one is going to have to wait and see. But you do make a very good point, we deal with the RAF on a daily basis and we see the efficiency or lack there of.
Zindy said:
on Wednesday 29-Jan-20 07:38 AM
I would also like to know how they are going to handle the claims, It is going to take years to iron out the problems that are bound to happen and unforeseen issues until they happen. The amount of work the claims will take to process and to getting these experts paid and still disputing the fees they are claiming for ect. Just seems like a lot of work already.
Johannesburg based attorney specializing in personal injury matters including Road Accident Fund claims and medical negligence matters. My interests include golf, reading and the internet and the way it is constantly developing. I have a passion for life and a desire for less stress!
