The Feasibility of the National Health Insurance in South Africa

In our world each country has a set of standards to follow in order to establish health care insurance for people in different communities. The state contributes about 40% of all the expenditures on health while the public health sector delivers 80% of the population. Many resources are concentrated in the private health sector. These resources see to the health needs of the remaining 20% of the population. Public health consumes around 11% of the government’s total budget. The way the resources are allotted, and the standard of health care delivered, varies from country to country. Although there are similarities between South Africa and the United States regarding healthcare, South Africa remains at a lower

Universal Healthcare sounds appealing, but it actually lowers the quality and quantity of healthcare services that are rendered to patients, thus downgrading the healthcare system as a whole.  Not having to pay, with everyone having coverage leads to longer wait times for medical service and many people overusing health care services. Implementation of Universal Healthcare in the United States would lead to a detrimental crippling of the nation’s health system. For those countries that have implemented Universal Healthcare or a system similar to it, all or most aspects of the coverage such as cost and care is generally provided by and tightly controlled by the government, a public-sector committee, or employer-based programs, with most of the funding essentially coming from tax revenues or budget cuts in other areas of spending. This paper will conclude with comparing the US healthcare system to others and how the US has one of the most advanced systems in the world.

The health care system must change to improve our nation’s health and takes strong steps to address the unsustainable growth of health care costs in America. We still have a long way to go before our health system become effective. We still have population that do not have insurance, have difficulties accessing their health care, or their needs are not met within the healthcare system. It is an investment in prevention and wellness and increasing access to primary care physician.

Providing healthcare coverage to all citizens can be challenging to many countries and only the most developed countries have adequate resources to truly provide universal coverage to their citizens. Still, when coverage and resources are not sufficient, care is rationed through limited supply or limited access. Most countries have mechanisms in place, however, to insure that affordability does not limit access to necessary services.

The National Coalition on Health Care also known NCHC is an organization that helps healthcare system to achieve their goals and to improve health care in United States. They are the nonprofit company that represents more than 80 participating organizations like, medical societies, business, union healthcare providers, funds, insurer, etc. Besides, some of their current missions to improve the health care system are to increase resources for developing the culturally competent health and social services. Also, to change public and private sector policies to solve any issue, build and spread knowledge about health status and other health related information. In addition, they working on eliminating health disparities that occur based on

The importance is to foster community engagement, community, stakeholders and Obligation to Engage (of Health Service Providers). The “local health integration network shall engage the community of diverse persons and entities involved with the local health system about that system on an ongoing basis, including about the integrated health service plan and while setting priorities” (c. 4, s. 16 (1)) CE was established as a core function of the LHINs, with the understanding that regional planning is a more appropriate method for assessing and interpreting the local needs of a community. CE needs to be purposeful, accessible and its products transparent to the public and LHIN decision makers" (More about …,

The availability of healthcare is an extremely important issue in the United States. There are millions of Americans that are uninsured in the U.S. A high amount of uninsured people are from minority groups such as Hispanics and African-Americans. High deductible payments, the cost of prescription drugs, and lack of health insurance coverage cause many Americans to choose to live without insurance to save money for everyday expenses beside healthcare. Without health insurance, people do not have access to quality healthcare. Most citizens are aware of the issues in the healthcare system, but the disagreement comes when discussing how the best approach on ameliorating the system. Some believe that a more public and universal healthcare system is the best approach. Others believe that America works best through free enterprise and private institutions, and believe health insurance should be more privatized. However, health care has been shown to work best and be more available through proper public government control as it will allow for all Americans to have access to equal healthcare, in which money does not dictate health.

The healthcare system has come under heavy criticism from experts from all over the world. According to Schroder, 44% of the population has no access to the healthcare system. (Schroder, 2003) There are many clinics which charge are free of cost or are charging lesser fees, but all of these are burdened and do not have the capability to meet the requirements. There are certain ethnic communities that are by enlarge poor who are of the opinion that they have been deliberately been left out of the healthcare system. These have led to the

HC1: Public health is here to assist in the prevention of disease, promote health and continually adding longevity to life (WHO, 2015). It is broken down into a few different functions. There are assessments and monitoring of different health communities and the populations which are at risk (WHO, 2015). Second, would be how policies are designed to solve certain problems on the local and national levels (WHO, 2015). And last, would be to make sure that all populations have adequate access to health care and that it is cost effective (WHO, 2015). Quality improvements is increasing its approach to get maximize services that will be effective while also minimizing the costs (HHS, 2011). When making improvements one must first identify strategies and characteristics that are essential to the concern (HHS, 2011). Once that is completed, apply the quality improvements to produce a measurable improvement (HHS, 2011). This will show whether there were improvements in efficiency, effectiveness as well as performance and outcomes (HHS, 2011). Another improvement would be making the role that environmental health has to give more of an impact in public

With the focus on these five areas, Governments in each country are creating health systems that aim to provide services that are affordable, equitable and accessible. To achieve a sustainable health system, cooperation and participation of all health care providers is vital. This will work towards WHO’s goal of achieving “better health for all”

The 9 national health priority areas (NHPA)(appendix 1) identified under the NHPA initiative are cancer, cardiovascular health, injury prevention and control, mental heath, diabetes mellitus, asthma, arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions, obesity and dementia. Significant improvements are expected from funding directed towards these leading contributors to burden of disease.

Our healthcare system needs major restructuring. Major improvements needs to begin with "all health care organizations, professional groups, and private and public purchasers should adopt as their explicit purpose to continually reduce the burden of illness, injury, and disability, and to improve the health and functioning of the people of the United States", (Crossing the ……, 2001).

The mission of Hawaii Health Systems Corporation is to provide accessible, comprehensive healthcare services that are quality-driven, customer-focused, and cost-effective. The vision of the organization is to be the provider of choice for the communities it serves, the employer of choice for its staff, and the system of choice for its physicians (www.hhsc.org, 2014). The organization works with the physician base along with other service providers to plan and implement business ventures that will enhance the services offered to its patients. Employees and community leaders are included in the decision making processes to ensure adequate representation. Each facility has its own separate mission and vision statement that integrates into the overarching statement of Hawaii Health Systems Corporation.

According to the United States census Bureau 47.9 million persons in the US which is approximately 15.4% of the entire US population, in 2012 lacked health insurance. Mexico and the US are the only nations of the thirty-four member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that do not provide their citizens with universal health care. On the other hand, health care right should be provided to any person in the developed world and no one should be excluded from it. Universal health care would enhance public health, put an end to medical bankruptcies, minimize overall spending in healthcare, assist small businesses as well as the fact that health care must be a crucial service offered by the government (Mangan, 2014).

In 1994, when South Africa transitioned to a democracy, access to these clinics improved greatly, but the quality of the services they provide has decreased drastically. District hospitals provide the next level of public healthcare, and provide more advanced treatments. Academic hospitals provide advanced diagnostic procedures and treatments, and also serve as training facilities for healthcare providers. Private sector healthcare on the other hand is run on commercial lines and provides services to formally educated white earners making middle to high incomes and medical professionals. These services tend to be members of medical plans, commonly referred to as schemes. Private health care consumes over 50% of total health care spending in South Africa, but is inaccessible to most of the population, and in many cases, highly inefficient. (Neil Söderlund, 1998). In 1995, medical schemes were the main source for financing private health care, covering about 18 % of the population. (Neil Söderlund, 1998) Between 1990 and 1995 there was an increase of approximately 50 % in black African medical scheme members. “South Africa is fortunate in having notably high-quality healthcare resources in the private sector” (Ramjee, 2013/2014). Private