That's about R50,000 per year per tax paying citizen! Can't happen! The 5,000,000 taxpayers would leave or cheat on their taxes.

The ruling party's acumen & skills in finances will bankrupt the country and SA will be crucified on a cross of gold. The unions' "wants" are: interest rates @3%, nationalise the mines & SARB, scrap inflation targeting, wages increase between 10&15%, peg the Rand @10 to 1 USD, NHI and a pension for all. SA has 44 million inhabitants and 3,5 million tax payers. These unfortunate people are taxed at a rate of 37% and for this the SA Government doesn't even provide a livable social security to its tax payers as most of the money is wasted on corruption and luxury cars. The budget deficit is 8.4%, SARS is short of 82.9 bn of the estimated target of 740bn. Therefore tax payers will have fork out the shortage (more tax hikes on the way) and now the Government is requesting more taxes for the NHI. Good timing indeed. What next? Hello Zuma & Co, in which fools paradise have you been living? We are ruled by leaders with galactic stupidity and ignorance. Unfortunately the majority in SA is not educated and this is SA's curse. Had the majority previously been educated, surely they would not have voted for unskilled people to represent them. I can see the young educated people will leave SA and the rest will be in the hands of a bunch of arrogant corrupt leaders. After all SA voters elected them to rule the country. Just like Zim they have themselves to blame.

@ mapholoba. Simply demanding money from the White man without adding any benefit whatsoever (except maybe adding more kids to the problem) is hardly an innovation !

@anonymous: That is the whole ideal of the NHI, you don't need a medical aid anymore, instead you will have basic NHI cover and your private medical aid will be your top up cover for more advanced procedures or optionals. Of course, you medical aid payments will decrease accordingly as they will not have to cover the basic procedures anymore.

NHI plans infeasible, research indicates. Vuvuzela causes deafness, research indicates. Who is really doing all these research? I wont be surprised if DA is involved. Can you stop please crushing black peoples innovations.

I have seen and used the National Health Service in Britain and it works very well (despite how the British complain about it but they haven't sat in an out patients ward in SA!) The problem is exactly what the ecomomists are saying: We can't afford it at the moment. PPP must increase to at least $25,000 and unemployment has to be lower. In Europe the average PPP is about $33,000 and unemployment is usually around 7%.....then you can afford an NHI. SA PPP is around $10,000 and unemployment at about 22%....the numbers are just not there yet. Hopefully in the future but first education, education, education....and more education.

I have seen and used the National Health Service in Britain and it works very well (despite how the British complain about it but they haven't sat in an out patients ward in SA!) The problem is exactly what the ecomomists are saying: We can't afford it at the moment. PPP must increase to at least $25,000 and unemployment has to be lower. In Europe the average PPP is about $33,000 and unemployment is usually around 7%.....then you can afford an NHI. SA PPP is around $10,000 and unemployment at about 22%....the numbers are just not there yet. Hopefully in the future but first education, education, education....and more education.

If this plan becomes a reality, why should we have private medical aid 'accounts'? I currently pay in excess of R 3500 monthly to cover my family. If, for a 4% tax hike, I can visit private medical services at the governments expense, I may as well cancel my medical aid, and save a lot of money. Of course, that will mean the collapse of medical aid schemes, as I'm sure I'm not the only person that thinks like this. That will, in turn, mean the collapse of private medical service providers, and a pathetic inept medical system, much like the current public sector one...

Don't worry - they will go ahead anyway.

I wouldn't have a problem with the NHI initiative if I knew that it wouldn't be rife with the same nepotism, inefficiency and idiocy that plagues every other aspect of government. I wish that the ANC would just pause for a moment and get their house in order rather than desperately building on extensions and hoping that it'll distract people from noticing that the other parts are falling down. The motive here isn't economic or social, it's purely political and that's the worst possible motivation.