Solidarity CE Dr Dirk Hermann on Wednesday said his union is getting ready for what it calls a major court case against the government’s plans for National Health Insurance (NHI) which were approved in Parliament on Tuesday.

The objective of the NHI Bill is to provide universal access to quality health care for all South Africans, but Hermann says government has already failed with the public healthcare system, and it now wants to fail on an even bigger scale.

He says the government’s plans of trying to capture healthcare through the NHI are unaffordable and unimplementable as it will lead to a mass exodus of health practitioners from the country.

He says government has a history of failure when it comes to State enterprises, and there is no reason to believe the proposed NHI will not be to the serious detriment of South Africans.

Solidarity has participated in all the public participation processes and has already achieved several victories against the NHI in court.

“We cannot trust the government and we cannot deliver our medical professionals to them and trust our health to their hand. This is going to be a major court battle,” he warns.