The National Health Insurance and its impact on you.

Are you worried about what the National Health insurance will do to your medical aid and savings when it is rolled out in 2022?

The Government website says:
“The National Health Insurance (NHI) is a health financing system that is designed to pool funds to provide access to quality affordable personal health services for all South Africans based on their health needs, irrespective of their socio-economic status. NHI is intended to ensure that the use of health services does not result in financial hardship for individuals and their families.

NHI seeks to realise universal health coverage for all South Africans. This means that every South African will have a right to access comprehensive healthcare services free of charge at the point of use at accredited health facilities such as clinics, hospitals and private health practitioners. This will be done using an NHI card. The services will be delivered closest to where people live or work. NHI is being implemented in phases over a 14-year period that started in 2012. It will be established through the creation of a single fund that will buy services on behalf of the entire population, The funding for NHI will be through a combination of various mandatory pre-payment sources, primarily based on general taxes.”

The big question (and we kind of knew the answer to that question all along…) is who is going to pay for the NHI? The Bill is a little vague on some specifics around funding for the NHI but it is obvious – South African taxpayers will be footing the bill by way of direct and indirect taxes.

Although it’s a well thought out plan and it would work well in a country with a high per capita income (who could afford a few more taxes), there is very little evidence to suggest that the NHI will actually deliver as promised.

As an Australian Permanent Resident, you will have immediate access to Australia’s health system this is one of the best in the world, providing safe and affordable health care for all Australians. It is jointly run by all levels of the Australian government – federal, state and territory, and local.

Medicare and the public hospital system provide free or low-cost access for all Australians to most of these health care services. Private health insurance gives you choice outside the public system. For private health care both in and out of hospital, you contribute towards the cost of your health care.

For as little as $400 a month a family can have comprehensive private “top-up” cover in addition to Medicare.

For an example, if you were to apply now for a contributory parent visa, you could have your visa and the cover by 2023.

Can we believe everything we read online? There are a lot of websites and immigration chat pages that offer real insight into the migration process and life in Australia. It is, however, important to realize that this information is put out there by a human being – and as humans, we all have our opinions and bias based on what information we have available to us and our experiences. Lots of people give out really great advice, a lot of people give out really bad advice. The key to this is having enough information available to you to form your own opinion.

If you have any questions – you are welcome to give us a call to discuss them them.

The Numbeo website has updated its comparative cost of living for Australia. Here is a general extract from that website. You can actually play with the setting and get comparisons on a city by city basis.

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