The Feasibility of the propose Nation Health Insurance in South Africa
The Nation Health Insurance (NHI) is an insurance scheme that was released on Friday, 12 August 2011, in South Africa, which aims at introducing an innovative system of healthcare financing that, will only lead to the benefit of South African health outcomes. The NHI’s main aim is not to build more hospitals around the country, but to improve the access to them. The policy wants to ‘ensure that everyone has access to appropriate, efficient and quality health services’ - (Department: Health Repulic of South Africa, 2011), nationwide. The NHI is said to be implemented, slowly, over the next 14 years (currently, the next 11 years) and will improve service delivery in the public healthcare system in the country.
The government is currently funding the public health sector, with 8.5% (with 4.1% allocated to the private sector and 4.2% on the public healthcare sector) of the GDP going towards healthcare in South Africa. It therefore ranks 47 out of 188 countries in terms of health, which is fairly worthy, in a financial sense, compared to a small country like Qatar, with an amount of 1.9% of the annual GPD being spent on health - (The World Bank, 2014). However, the expenditure is relatively low when compared to the amount of 17.9% that the United States spends on the health of their country. Furthermore, the life expectancy of the average citizen in the United States is 78.64 years, Qatar 78.25 years and 52.64 years in South Africa. Thus it can be concluded, from the above results, that although Qatar is spending 1.9% of their GDP on health, their health system is being efficiently used and is working in advantage of their citizens; they are being resourceful when ...
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...are sectors. From, both, the institutional and financial perspectives, we can note the NHI policy is detached from the realities of the health systems in the country. If the NHI is implemented, along with inflation, the healthcare costs will increase dramatically. This could, in turn, affect our economy negatively. It, however, does have advantages – improving the healthcare status in the country, which could essentially lead to a healthier population and workforce. Nevertheless, the negatives of the NHI are more prominent than the positives. With a limited amount of resources, only a certain amount of health can in actual fact be provided.
We can all agree on the fact that the current health system needs to drastically change. ‘The NHI Green Paper seems to be a move in the right directions, but many essential features are not addressed properly’ - (Econex, 2011).
...rofiles of Health Care Systems, The Commonwealth Fund, June 2010. Retrieved April 20th, 2011 from website: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund%20Report/2010/Jun/1417_Squires_Intl_Profiles_622.pdf
Since 1970, health care spending has grown at an average annual rate of 9.8%, or about 2.5 percentage points faster than the economy as measured by the nominal gross domestic product (GDP). Annual spending on health care increased from $75 billion in 1970 to $2.0 trillion in 2005, and is estimated to reach $4 trillion in 2015. As a share of the economy, health care has more than doubled over the past 35 years, rising from 7.2% of GDP in 1970 to 16.0% of GDP in 2005, and is projected to be 20% of GDP in 2015. Health care spending per capita increased from $356 in 1970 to $6,697 in 2005, and is projected to rise to $12,320 in 2015.” (Henry J,
Newman, Alex. “Examining Healthcare: A Look Around the Globe at Nationalized Systems.” The New American. 15 Sep. 2008: 10. eLibrary. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.
As I began watching Reinventing Healthcare-A Fred Friendly Seminar (2008), I thought to myself, “man, things have changed since 2008.” And as the discussion progressed, I started to become irritated by how little had changed. The issues discussed were far-reaching, and the necessity for urgent change was a repeated theme. And yet, eight years later, health care has made changes, but many of its crucial problems still exist.
National health systems are assessed by the extent to which expenditure and actions in public health and medical care contributes to the crucial social goals of improving health, increasing access to quality healthcare, reducing health disparities, protecting citizens from penury due to medical e...
Health is by far the most important thing for a human being, so every penny invested on it has to work. This essay is about the study of the current state of American health reforms and why they are desperately required. Unfortunately things are not that bright as they might seem, an American investing most of their money on health care is basically not getting the level of health care they deserves. With all the investment in the medical field and all the advancements of medical domains, government should be providing best health care in the world for its people.
Despite the established health care facilities in the United States, most citizens do not have access to proper medical care. We must appreciate from the very onset that a healthy and strong nation must have a proper health care system. Such a health system should be available and affordable to all. The cost of health services is high. In fact, the ...
Every country wants to believe they have the best healthcare system, but what determines which system really is the best. In 2000, the World Health Organization became the first to publish an analysis of the world’s healthcare systems. The analysis was based on the following five indicators: population health overall, health disparities, overall responsiveness of the health system, distribution of responsiveness based on economic status, and who covers the financial burden. Based on that report, USA ranked 37th, Canada ranked 30th, Germany ranked 25th, and UK ranked 18th (Coutsoukis, 2000). The comparison was extremely difficult, and the report was heavily criticized.
Healthcare plays an important role in almost every person’s life at one point or another. Many times, one can get caught without, or underinsured and it can be detrimental to their livelihood. With the rising cost of healthcare, it is likely that having a national healthcare policy in place, and as an individual, being able to afford and obtain adequate health insurance has not been required until now. With the new national healthcare plan, it is required for all citizens to obtain and maintain some sort of public or private insurance policy. The rising costs can be attributed to many things. A significant reason for the astronomical cost of health care is because of the staggering amount of uninsured or underinsured individuals receiving medical attention and almost many never paying the bill. Those who do have insurance have seen a gradual increase in their premiums and deductibles to make up for this.
By looking at other places with universal healthcare, we have found major flaws in their systems such as lack of importance and misplacement of people files, information leaked to the government about medical records, and the overall cost of it all. According to the Commonwealth Wealth Fund study, some countries with universal health care struggle to sustain efficiency and in addition, Canada and Australia were ranked lowest in accessibility of physician appointments and wait times for basic medical services, as well as specialist care, tests, and elective surgery. By providing examples of other countries failing with the system of free healthcare, readers get the clear concept of the negative effects the system could have on our society as a
The policies are often revised to suit the current economy of a country (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, & O 'Grady, 2015). My choice is based on the fact that this is the policies in health sector keep on changing. The health policies are not the same in every country. The government in collaboration with the health officials are responsible for drafting the policies. There are a number of aspects that are considered when drafting the policies. The first factor is the economy of the country (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, & O 'Grady, 2015). Before setting any policies, the government has to consider the economy and the availability of resources. It then decides what policies to set based on its
Foremost, as stated, the conception of what is the best health care system is entirely subjective. It is a question that can never truly be answered correctly by any person. While one person may believe that a certain health care system is the best, another may contend for an opposing health care system. While favorability of a particular system is subjective, the overall efficiency of a system is one that a person can develop a greater understanding of by looking at the proponents of a system. The aforementioned proponents of accessibility, costs and overall quality allow for a sterner declaration of what health care system is the most efficient overall, or which is the “best”. These three proponents are significant as they are the main actors in shaping how a health care system operates. As a result, these three proponents also have a significant impact on all people and their health. If health care is not accessible or costs so much that a person cannot afford it, then one’s health has the potential to deteriorate. As for quality, the notion is vital in that one’s health care system will not be effective if the services provided are not standard. Consequently, one should carefully examine these proponents of a health care system in order to make an educated determination on which system is overall the most effective.
(2014) ‘White Paper on Universal Health Insurance’ [Online] Available from: http://health.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/UHI-Stakeholder-Briefing.pdf [Accessed 16th November 2014].
Health care cost, the cost which are related to health care, and which are not paid for by insurance. The health care costs have continued to consume national budget and even individuals. The increasing healthcare cost are interfering with the rapid economic growth because money intended for development is used on healthcare. The cost of healthcare is determined by the approach adopted by certain government or country. The basic values upheld by a society create a perception that determines cost consideration in formulating procedures, polices and outcome in healthcare. The National Health Insurance (NHI) costs have been steadily rising in the recent past causing a major concern on the impact on individuals, service providers and the government.
In order to achieve health wellbeing, the co-payment plan should be rejected since it poses negative effects on health especially for the underprivileged people and deterioration in health intervention due to the decreased efficiency in primary health care system. This lack of short term financial resources could not be full-filled by a $5 surcharge. In the ABC news video (2014), health policy expert Jennifer argued that key to maintain health care budget in other international countries is maintaining well-resourced and cost effective primary sector and creating the synergy between GP, nurses and other allied health practitioners. Therefore this policy is not efficient and needs to be rejected for future. Strong primary health care system yields positive outcomes in a long term since it helps to save finance and avoid the aggravation of illness.