Health-care sectors need overhaul

THE government plan to roll out the National Health Insurance (NHI) is a noble initiative aimed at promoting access to health care while addressing inequality in the country. Some of the proponents of the NHI believe it is a magic bullet that will rescue our ailing heath system.

As a result of the pending introduction of NHI, health experts have been calling for the abolition of medical aid schemes, describing them as a “crime against humanity”. Some experts have gone as far as saying medical aids schemes “cannot co-exist with the government’s proposed NHI”.

The truth of the matter is that South Africa has two health-care systems – the public health-care sector for the poor majority and the private health-care sector for the privileged few. It is also true that the private sector receives the lion’s share of the funding of the country’s health-care sector.

Dr Mfowethu Zungu, deputy director-general for Macro, Policy, Planning and NHI at the KZN Health Department, said only 48% of expenditure on health in South Africa was directed to the public sector, which serves 87% of the population. The balance was spent in the private sector, which served medical aid members, who comprise around 17% of the population.

Surely even the privileged among us will find these figures very disturbing.

Those fighting for the maintenance of private health care for the benefit of a few, have argued the government must fix the public health system that is on the brink of collapse because of corruption, maladministration and incompetene. We all agree that the introduction of NHI will be a futile exercise unless we address a number of pressing issues facing this sector.

The death of 94 mental health patients in Gauteng and the everincreasing lawsuits facing the KZN Health Department, owing to negligence by overworked health professionals, are some of the serious challenges we need to overcome.

However, that does not mean things must stay the same. Poor people need health care the most and medical aids do not serve their needs.

While we criticise the government, we should not lose sight of the fact that private health care is very expensive and there is the real danger that it will become unaffordable, even for the middle class.

There is no justification why the cost of medication and medical care goes through the roof when it is distributed in a private facility.

It is our firm belief that both sectors need a major overhaul before the NHI is introduced.