The Impact of Globalization on the Health Sector in South Africa After the Apartheid era, massive inequalities in income, health status, access to health care and other social services continued to dominate in South Africa. The Apartheid era was a system of racial segregation that was implemented in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. Due to colonization, whites had ruled South Africa for several centuries, which resulted in the creation of a system that was constructed to serve as a legal framework for continued economic and political dominance by people of European descent (WHO 2003: Antiretroviral Therapy). The apartheid era came to an end as a consequence of both inner and global pressure and South Africa’s new democratic government. …show more content…
Globalization will also be understood as the “opening and deregulation of economic activities- the removal of tariff barriers to trade, of restrictions on investment and capital flows” (Mayor, Nell 4). It is first important to understand the different domestic actors on the health sector in South Africa in order to comprehend how the health care system operates and how globalization plays a pivotal role in the actions of these actors. There are three distinct actors that have direct economic and political influence in regards to health in South Africa. The first actor that will be examined is the National Treasury. The National Treasury is responsible for setting the macroeconomic agenda and controlling the government budget. In 1996, the ministry introduced the GEAR (Growth Employment and Redistribution) policy. GEAR is the promotion of business confidence and it is aimed to catalyze foreign investment. GEAR imposes constraints on the resources flowing into the health sector because it requires the public expenditure growth to be lower than overall economic growth in order to show fiscal competence. Fiscal competence will, in turn, generate more foreign investment because other countries will perceive South Africa as an efficient and effective economy that will be able to generate capital. Thus, the government’s macroeconomic strategy is
Racism, discrimination and degradation faced by Blacks and other ethnic minorities under the apartheid system was not unlike the segregation and intimidation faced by African-Americans in the Jim Crow south. Jim Crow system of segregation that kept Blacks from fully participating in public and civic activities and relegated African-Americans to substandard conditions at work, school and even in the home. Blacks in South Africa were under the clutches of an overt, national policy of racism and segregation implemented by the country’s highest level of government. Civil and human rights abuses of Blacks in South Africa at the hand of the country’s white minority occurred long before apartheid officially began, but the system’s official start brought strict, sweeping laws such as the rule that all persons in South Africa to be categorized as white, Black, colored and Indian, without exception. Like in the U.S. during Jim Crow, Blacks and whites were not allowed to marry and sexual relations between members of different races was a criminal offense.
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
A Health care system of any country is an important consideration for the purposes of the overall development. One of the most important and essential feature of the human body is the health and the systems. In the same manner, proper management is also necessary. Furthermore, all the countries of the world have few targets and achievements to be made. On the other hand, it should also be noted down that, economic development and social welfare the two most are the two important factors. Economic welfare is connected with the increase in the wealth of the people at large (Niles, 2011).
Many different contexts group together to make up the term “globalization” such as: technology, trade, offshoring, outsourcing integration, migration, transportation, and environmental pollution. In plain terms, globalization can be described as a process that embraces economic and cultural transmissions between countries. This process is intended to improve the function of economic activities worldwide. The movement also supports the idea of internationalism. Influencing a nation to adopt new political views and educational values can be a potentially positive way to help a struggling nation develop. However, economic improvement in this situation is not always the case. Research provides an irregular pattern concerning economic development. Focusing in on the impact of globalization in South Africa, both positives and negatives have played a part in this country’s struggle to compete with the rest of the world.
Historical information about the period of publication: * South Africa already colonized by Europeans * Rampant racism * Introduction of apartheid in 1948
Globalization in healthcare is a topic that has been the subject of many debates worldwide. While practically the entire world is becoming a global village due to globalization, the healthcare industry was considered to be invulnerable to this trend. This was attributed to the fact that healthcare is a service industry, where service is delivered on area of purchase. However many developments not only in the healthcare industry but in the entire economical sphere as a whole have seen the aspects of globalization. As a result globalization in the healthcare industry is a common phenomenon in the contemporary world. As the healthcare industry across global boundaries becomes increasingly intertwined,
Globalization involves the movement of people, food, goods from one place to another. And in the process of countries integrating, people and goods move from one location to another. In as much as there is positive impact for people, goods and services to move from one country to another. There are chances that the people, goods and service in a county can be infected and taken across the border to another country. In the course of globalization people move from one country to another and they might have contacted diseases or the product that they are carrying across the border. Diseases such as AIDs, tuberculosis, malaria are the top among the list of the disease that is usually carried by people. But just as globalization increases the frequency and ease with which diseases can move around the world, it also can improve access to the medicines, medical information, and training that can help treat or cure these diseases. Drug companies and governments now have the ability to ship drugs to remote parts of the world affected by outbreaks of diseases. There are various options that can be used to lower the spread of global disease. Most countries usually have screening borders to check the people, food and
One of the major problems facing our country today is the healthcare crisis. The inequality in our current healthcare system has created a huge gap in the difference between the level and the quality of healthcare that different people receive. Having an improved and reliable health care system available for everyone should be a priority that the government must make available. There are countries whose health care system meets the needs of the patients while there are countries whose health care systems need a great amount of overhaul for them to be able to attend to their patients. In this essay I will discuss the healthcare crisis and the differences in many countries
Apartheid is an Afrikaans word for apartness and also the title of an infamous system of racial segregation that governed South Africa for almost 50 years. It was a system wherein white people dominated socially, economically and politically at the expense of black people, and had its roots in the colonial period; when the Europeans first reached Africa to obtain raw materials and exploit the natives for labour, justifying their actions with Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden, that expressed the white man’s duty to civilise non-whites. South Africa retained its discriminatory laws and homelands up until 1994 when apartheid finally was abolished. Resistance campaigns and freedom fighters, such as Nelson Mandela, are most commonly credited with
The residents of Africa are suffering from preventable, treatable, and fatal diseases everyday at a higher rate compared to developed countries. The healthcare crisis in Africa is the primary cause of all these deaths, and includes inefficient healthcare systems. Consequently, African's inefficient healthcare systems results in poor delivery of care and a shortage of health professionals. The healthcare crisis in Africa is a current issue impacting the lives of many African's who don't have the same access to resources as developed countries such as the United States. These resources can save the lives of many African's dying of preventable and curable disease, and understanding why the African continent has little access to them
Modern health care is a policy revolving around a system that allows individuals to access medical services in order to maintain or improve physical and mental health. There is not universal coverage throughout the world, and some individuals have the access and coverage vital to their wellbeing. In the last decade, healthcare cost have been rising at a steady rate on a worldly scale. Numerous industrialized and developed countries are being exposed to a steady fluctuation within the structure of the system, and the question on how to control and prevent further increases has yet to be solved. A large percentage of the GDP for developed countries is currently being spent on the healthcare system. Countries such as the United States spend around 17.7% of its GDP on healthcare, with the Netherlands spending the second most at around 11.9%. This widespread increase on healthcare expenditures is only going to increase as time progresses, unless a new universal system is implemented that will help control the cost worldwide.
South Africa really began to suffer when apartheid was written into the law. Apartheid was first introduced in the 1948 election that the Afrikaner National Party won. The plan was to take the already existing segregation and expand it (Wright, 60). Apartheid was a system that segregated South Africa’s population racially and considered non-whites inferior (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). Apartheid was designed to make it
Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities
It is said that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Healthcare is an important concern for every government as people get ill, accidents happen, emergencies arise and the health institutions are needed to diagnose, manage and treat the different types of ailments or diseases that may arise. The healthcare industry is divided into several areas in order to meet the health needs of anyone and everyone. All over the world, the healthcare structures are different to accommodate specific needs of the people in that demographic however the healthcare methodology in Third World Countries does not accommodate the needs of their respective inhabitants in comparison to First world Countries. The Rate of corruption, quality of healthcare institutions, lack of adequate, functional surveillance systems and problematic hygiene conditions are amongst the top reasons why the healthcare systems in third world countries are substandard in comparison to First world nations.
Globalization in a general view is causing changes in nature of the society which can bring new possibilities, also risks. The effects of