The DDF (Direct Democracy Forum) have blithely aimed to initiate a National Health Insurance Scheme for South Africa, based on a monthly deduction of R600 from their proposed UBI/BIG (Universal Basic Income/Basic Income Grant). The DDF have been avoiding the issue of how that would work, money-wise, largely because they did not know, with any certainty, what spend was needed.
Some research along with an independent source (Compare Guru) puts that spend at 8.8% of the GDP.
The arithmetic for that is as follows:
Assume a GDP of R3 Trillion.
The SA’s health spend is said to be 8.8% of the GDP = R3 Trillion X 8.8% = R264 Billion (includes public and private resourced health care).
Assume a Citizenry of 35 Million each getting a UBI/BIG, from which is deducted R600 per month and paid over to the NHIS.
So contributions from the UBI = R600 X 35 Million per month X 12 (for a year) = R252 Billion.
The point being that the R252 Billion contributions from the UBI/BIG are in the ballpark for the national health spend of R264 Billion.
The conclusion is that a NHIS funded from a UBI/BIG is doable.
We believed that was the case but it is nice to have some numbers with which to back it up.