Abstract
This chapter examines the opportunities and challenges entailed by the recently proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) reforms in South Africa. It discusses what NHI is trying to achieve within the context of the country’s current two-tiered health system and how it hopes to address existing problems, before examining the political, institutional and implementation challenges the reforms will face. While most attention has been thus far devoted to the structural requirements and fiscal affordability of universal coverage, this chapter highlights attention on wider challenges—in particular the important role played by key stakeholders tasked with implementing the reforms.
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Between the time of writing and the publication of this volume, the White Paper was published in December 2015.
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Surender, R. (2017). The Drivers of Universal Health Care in South Africa: The Role of Ideas, Actors and Institutions. In: Yi, I. (eds) Towards Universal Health Care in Emerging Economies. Social Policy in a Development Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53377-7_12
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