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
The facts bear out the conclusion that the way healthcare in this country is distributed is flawed. It causes us to lose money, productivity, and unjustly leaves too many people struggling for what Thomas Jefferson realized was fundamental. Among industrialized countries, America holds the unique position of not having any form of universal health care. This should lead Americans to ask why the health of its citizens is “less equal” than the health of a European.
As of April 1, 2010, many changes in the health care structure is changing. Many of these changes are reorganizing the responsibilities of who makes the decisions on how services are commissioned, the way money is spent and issuing more involvement from local authorities and opening up comp...
Harrison, S. (1997) Health – The agenda for an incoming government, Public Money and Management Apr-Jun pp 27-31
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 ...
...e crucial change needed in health services delivery, with the aim of transforming the current deteriorated system into a true “health care” system. (ANA, 2010)
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.
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...
The National health services (NHS) provides a comprehensive healthcare services across the entire nation. It is considered to be UK’s proudest institution, and is envied by many other countries because of its free of cost health delivery to its population. Nevertheless, it is often seen as a ‘political football’ as it affects all of us in some way and hence everyone carry an opinion about it (Cass, 2006). Factors such as government policies, funding, number of service users, taxation etc all make up small parts of this large complex organisation. Therefore, any imbalances within one sector can pose a substantial risk on the overall NHS (Wheeler & Grice, 2000). This essay will discuss whether the NHS aim of reducing the nations need for provision of health was achieved or not, taking into account different health models.
Right to health is one of the basic human rights without distinction of ethnicity, religion, race or socio-economic conditions. As a consequence, all of people have the same right to the highest attainable standards of health both physically and mentally including access to various medical services with affordable and proper quality (WHO, 2008). Furthermore, the government should ensure the availability of health facilities to improve health conditions for all citizens. In fact, disparities in access to health services often occur in many countries (Barten, Mitlin, Mulholland, Hardoy, & Stern, 2007). One of the main factors that trigger such
The health care system in the United States encompasses so many individuals, businesses, and interest groups. Also, it can be difficult to pinpoint the most optimal approach to serve everyone’s unique needs and wants. This has led to a major health-care crisis in the society. As a matter of fact, the effect of the health-care crisis in the American society has been a longtime situation, and an effective policy response must focus on what is most enriching in the society: aiming to improve the overall quality of the system and positively impact the health status of all citizens, while subsequently minimizing costs.
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.
In many parts of the world that are considered lower or middle-class countries, health disparities are cause of major concern that leads to unnecessary disease and possible death. Many variables affect how and why many citizens of lower and middle-class countries struggle to obtain adequate healthcare. One region of the world classified as a lower socio economic territory is Ethiopia. Many factors contribute to the lack of health care in Ethiopia such as access to care, high cost of care, and being uneducated, to name a few. One idea that hinders many citizens in Ethiopia to attain healthcare is the access to the healthcare system. This research project will entail the issue of access to the health care system; ways it is affecting the lives of those living in Ethiopia, and measures that can be taken to possibly increase the availability and attainment of healthcare.
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