... is a direct response to President Zuma's instruction for the revision of the treatment guidelines by 1 April 2010.
The current system of funding health care in South Africa appears to be a two-tier system which grossly discriminates against the working class and the poor in favour of the rich and propertied classes.
In the words of Comrade Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in the recent debate on the state of the nation address, one of the most glaring and obvious reasons why the public sector is not doing well is what the people who have started engaging are trying their best to hide. This subsidy contributes to inequalities in the system. It does not make sense to subsidise the wealthy who largely benefit more from this subsidy. The high income earners tend to benefit more since they are in higher income tax brackets than lower and modest-income workers.
Interestingly, the private sector insists that government must not interfere with the private health care system. The rising costs of contributions to private medical aid schemes make it unaffordable for many people to continue their membership of private medical aid schemes or to use private health care services, let alone the 42 million who cannot afford to subscribe to such schemes. The efficiency of the private sector hospitals seems questionable and cannot be ascertained as there is little or no transparency about their costs; yet they stringently demand transparency on the part of the state.
So, it is the poorest 25% that should receive 36% of the benefits and not the richest, as happens now. But the private sector still insists that government must not interfere with the private medical aid and health care systems.