I was still saying when we deal with these issues we must forget which party we belong to, because the issue of health care financing, for your information, is not a South African issue. It's a global issue now. It's debated all over the world. That is why the Secretary-General of the United Nations said this.
The Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Margaret Chan, who, by the way, was the Minister of Health in Hong Kong, actually took up this debate and said, "Let me make another obvious point. A health system is a social institution. It does not just deliver pills and babies the way a post office delivers letters. A properly managed and financed health system that strives for universal coverage contributes to social cohesion and stability."
In other words, she is calling on all of us to properly manage and finance health care systems and move towards universal coverage. What is universal coverage? It's a national health insurance system that covers every citizen, regardless of their status of employment, of their colour, of their religion and regardless of who they are. As long as they are human beings, they need to be covered.
In the same week when these two people in the United Nations were saying these words, Mr Barack Obama was also debating the same issue, because, while in South Africa 41 million people are not covered, in America it's 57 million people and he was worried about them. He also wants them to move to universal coverage, because how do you feel when a fellow human being can just die in front of you simply because they don't have money. How do you feel, in this era in time? It is primitive! It can't be allowed by humanity anymore. It's embarrassing. It can't be allowed.
Don't ask me where do we get the money to pay you and where do we get the money to cover. Why were you covered? You never asked anybody where the state gets the money from to cover you. I'm repeating that every Member of Parliament is covered by medical aid and that coverage of medical aid is from public financing and none of us stood up to ask ... [Applause.]
Really, we should be embarrassed. What is good for you must be good for the rest of the population and we can't keep on asking where the money is coming from. Why is it that every time when we talk about the poor there must be a debate? For goodness sake, they are human beings like us. I'll actually get very embarrassed to say that about these people outside. I can't look them in the eyes. But every time they are sick, they are asked how much they have got. I'll keep on repeating that no human being must be asked about that because they do not choose.
When you talk about universal coverage of humanity, we must all become human beings, not members of different political parties, please, because we told our people that we want to serve them. We didn't say we are coming here to this Parliament to obstruct their service delivery. We said we wanted to serve them.
How can it be that today in this democracy we are even worse off than during the era of apartheid? I was a medical student during the era of apartheid and I also worked at King Edward VIII Hospital. We were stopped by apartheid from treating white people. We were not allowed to, and they had to go to Addington Hospital, which was for whites. But when they got into an accident next to King Edward VIII, we were forced to resuscitate them to make sure that they live.
There were many white people who used to have accidents next to King Edward VIII with their scooters. We would take them into a black hospital and resuscitate them so that they would live before sending them to a white hospital.
Today it is no longer an issue of colour. It's an issue of money. You can't even be resuscitated in a private hospital before you are taken to a public hospital, not because of the colour of your skin, but because of money. It's now financial apartheid. Do we want to support it? No, it can't be! We can't allow that situation.
I want members of the opposition to please take off their caps as opposition and become fellow South Africans and human beings. Become members of the human race, please. Thank you. [Applause.]