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Fixing an ailing system, South Africa’s universal health care plan falls short

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South Africa’s Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has finally gazetted the bill detailing an ambitious plan to roll out universal health care in the country through a National Health Insurance.

The bill responds to a global campaign spearheaded by the World Health Organisation and linked to the UN’s sustainable development goals to make sure that no-one is left behind in accessing quality health care.

There’s no dispute that South Africa’s health care system needs major reforms. There are considerable inequities in health care between urban and rural areas; between public and private health sectors and between primary health care and hospital care. And the country has a complex disease burden with heavy caseloads of HIV, TB and non-communicable diseases.

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Medical Schemes amendments could threaten schemes’ sustainability

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While the proposed amendments to the Medical Schemes Act seek to lower the cost of private healthcare, they may have the unintended consequence of threatening the sustainability of medical schemes.

The amendments look at abolishing the practice of copayments on certain benefits, removing waiting periods and prescribed minimum benefits and tapping into the reserves medical schemes are required to hold.

These provisions in isolation could affect the financial stability of medical aids, says Lerato Mosiah, CEO: Health Funders Association (HFA). “Whilst we welcome the dialogue in the sector, it is critical that this takes into consideration the broader picture and context. It is thus important to understand that medical schemes utilise risk management measures in order to ensure that they remain viable.

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‘Dead’ woman found alive in South Africa morgue fridge

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morgue

A woman is recovering in hospital after being discovered alive in a mortuary fridge. The woman was taken to Carletonville morgue, in Gauteng province, having been declared dead by paramedics following a road accident. Ambulance company Distress Alert said she had shown “no form of life”, South Africa’s TimesLive website reports. But when a morgue..
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Staatshospitale het ‘n te kort aan dokters – dit word nou ‘n krisis

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Die minister van gesondheid, Aaron Motsoaledi, het sy saak bepleit in ‘n verklaring waarin hy sê dat daar 14 onkologie apparate is wat elk R40 miljoen werd is, maar daar is geen spesialiste om die apparaat te gebruik nie.

Natal ondervind al maande lank ‘n probleem nie net met dokters nie, maar met mediese apparaat wat of stukkend of ondiensbaar is. Tans is daar een onkoloog in Natal in diens wat 1,3 miljoen kankerpasiënte moet behandel. Nou doen Motsoaledi ‘n beroep op privaat spesialiste om te kom help en die toerusting te gebruik.

Dit krap medici baie om omdat hy ‘n nuwe gesondheidstelsel te wil afdwing maar hy besef nie dat daar mediese personeel is wat die werk moet verrig nie. Kankerpasiënte moet tans in sekere hospitale tot vier maande wag voordat hul bestraling kan kry maar volgens die staat is dit nie “’n krisis” nie.

Deur: Die Vryburger

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Free Medical-Aid, Hospital and Funeral Plan and Insura
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Genesis wins case on accounting for use of medical savings funds

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On Tuesday, the Constitutional Court ruled that all funds paid by members to their schemes should be considered as assets, regardless of their intended use.

Genesis medical scheme has won its legal battle with the Council of Medical Schemes over how to account for the funds in members’ medical savings accounts (MSAs), a development that has potentially far-reaching implications for both the industry and consumers.

This technical accounting point will make a material difference in the way schemes calculate their solvency ratios that measure gross income against reserves.

Treating MSA balances as assets means schemes’ reported solvency ratios will improve, because funds accumulated in MSAs will now be considered as part of a schemes’ reserves, said Insight Actuaries joint CEO Barry Childs.

This is important because better solvency ratios mean less pressure on schemes to increase premiums.

The judgment overturned a high court ruling that the council has us
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Natural Cold and Flu Remedies

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Natural Cold and Flu Remedies

It’s no wonder these kinds of treatments are popular — we still have no cure for colds or the flu. While the flu vaccine may prevent the flu, and some prescription medications may shorten its symptoms, most conventional medications just ease symptoms. Many natural remedies can give you short-term relief as well, and a few may help you get better. See which ones show the most promise.

Echinacea
This herbal supplement may boost your immune system and help fight infections. But it’s unclear whether that helps you fight off colds. Most evidence shows echinacea doesn’t help prevent a cold, but some research found it shortens symptoms by a day or two. Other studies say it has no effect. To try it, take it when you start to feel bad and continue for 7 to 10 days.

Zinc
Some studies show it helps fight viruses, like the cold. They say the mineral stops certain proteins from forming before cold virus
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Travelling abroad – Consider this advice before you leave

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I will never forget the first Canadian medical tourist I interviewed. I was gripped when this person told me about travelling abroad for invasive surgery, accompanied by their spouse. While in India, this spouse required emergency surgery to address a chronic condition that had worsened.

This situation sounded so distressing and the researcher in me wondered: Could the mental and physical stress of caregiving in an unfamiliar, international context have negatively impacted the spouse’s health to the point that surgery was required?

There are many reasons why patients opt to seek health care abroad. In some cases, it is because they cannot access timely surgery locally. In others, they are seeking an experimental procedure that is not available at home, such as an unapproved stem cell therapy.

For most of the last decade I have been involved in extensively studying medical tourism. I have spoken with patients, policy-makers, doctors, nurses, tourism official
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Day hospitals: The answer to rising health costs?

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South Africans are faced with the constant increases in the cost of living and an ailing economy, forcing consumers to cut down on spending across the board.

For a small percentage of the population, healthcare costs are covered by medical aid, but only an estimated 16% of South Africans have such coverage while the rest rely on an already overburdened healthcare system. Continuing downward pressure on the economy is pushing even those with medical cover to either reduce it, or outright terminate their membership just to make ends meet, leaving more and more South Africans vulnerable.

While there are several factors contributing to the increase in private healthcare costs, including the volatile exchange rate and its impact on the cost of importing medical equipment, the rising costs of medication, doctors’ fees, the increasing average age of principal members on the schemes, the biggest culprit is private hospital costs.

According to the Council for Medical
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Technology – Egyptian e-health startup ElBalto launches mobile consultation service

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Egyptian startup ElBalto has launched a mobile application that provides users with easy, reliable, timely and affordable online video consultations via a network of customer-rated and licensed doctors.

Video consultations offered on ElBalto will initially be available in the specialisations of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Nutrition and Gynecology, while the startup will also offer home visits in areas like Orthopedics and Cardiology.

“Currently, Egypt is suffering from a significant imbalance in the health workforce distribution, with doctors concentrated in the big cities and urban settings,” said co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Mahmoud Abdalla.

“I was personally inspired when I became a father and had to go with my wife and newborn every other week for a doctor’s appointment to get answers to very basic questions, or to follow up on treatment. We were both struggling with time, effort, cost and logistics, let alone the inconvenience if we wo
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The real reason SA’s doctors won’t deliver your baby

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Medico-legal litigation has exploded. As of March 2016, claims against the health department from the previous five years stood at more than R37‑billion. By October that year, the figure had jumped to R51‑billion — or a third of the whole public healthcare budget if we had to pay every cent.

The medico-legal litigation pandemic threatens not only our health system but also the very existence of our mothers and children.

When some see these figures, their first reaction is to condemn the health department and accuse it of absolute carelessness. Please be careful before drawing such conclusions. Ask yourself first: But what has changed?

It is common knowledge that, over the decades, an overwhelming number of medico-legal litigation cases were lodged against the Road Accident Fund (RAF).

The RAF has since been litigated into a state of near-bankruptcy and is finding it difficult to even pay legitimate claims. The minister of finance has tried to raise th
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480 narkotiseurs kan SA verlaat oor swak NGV

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Indien narkotiseurs meen dat die Nasionale Gesondheidsversekering (NGV) en die beoogde prysbeheer ’n bedreiging vir hul beroep inhou, kan tot sowat 480 of ’n derde van hulle die land verlaat.

Natalie Zimmelman, uitvoerende hoof van die Suid-Afrikaanse Vereniging van Narkotiseurs (Sasa), het Dinsdag op ’n mediakonferensie die uitslae van ’n peiling onder narkotiseurs oor onder meer die NGV bekend gemaak.

Sy sê narkotiseurs is ’n “hoogs sensitiewe en baie mobiele” arbeidsmag omdat meer as 40% van hulle ook in ander lande geregistreer is. Meer as 50% het reeds in ’n ander land gewerk.

“Hulle kan môre die land verlaat as hulle wil.”

’n Peiling wat verlede jaar vir die markondersoek oor private gesondheidsorg uitgevoer is se inligting is nou vrygestel.

Dit toon 35% of sowat 480 narkotiseurs oorweeg dit om in die komende vyf jaar die land te verlaat. Dit hou met sosio-ekonomiese bedreigings vir hul beroep en hul siening oor die gesondhe
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Petrol price still on course to break record R16/litre, but AA says it could be worse – How much worse can it really get?

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Petrol price still on course to break record R16/litre, but AA says it could be worse - How much worse can it really get?

Pending a formal fuel adjustment announcement by the Department of Energy, a litre of 95 octane fuel inland is likely to breach the R16 a litre mark. Yet, the Automobile Association (AA) says South Africans are lucky, as fuel hikes ‘could’ve been far higher’. Petrol prices are due to reach record highs after the Department’s..
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It is almost hilarious – Zuma holds “prayer action” against crime

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It is almost hilarious when looking at Jacob Zuma’s newest mission of “nation building”. The prayer action was launched by Zuma “against crime as enemy of the economy”. Zuma will take action against crime with Rastafarians, Hindus, Shembe and Khoisan troops. Analysts such as Wayne Duvenage of OUTA say that it will only happen in..
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Medical aid board says SA has no choice but to back NHI

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South Africa’s healthcare system is not merely unviable or unsustainable, “it is at the brink of collapse” if the government does not intervene, says the Board of Healthcare Funders, which represents most medical aid schemes in the country.

“People are paying contributions to their medical schemes that are higher than inflation,” Humphrey Zokufa, who heads the board, said on Tuesday at a media briefing in Johannesburg.

He said that people have to pay copayments and their benefits run out. In addition, the pool of insured people is not increasing and those who are insured are ageing.

“In a situation like this, government has no option but to intervene, and that intervention is taking the form of the National Health Insurance [NHI].”

The NHI is a plan for significant reforms to the public and private health sectors and aims to make affordable healthcare available to all South Africans by pooling money from various sources, such as the Road Accident Fund
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You got to be joking? – Eskom wins awards despite load-shedding and ongoing wage negotiations

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You got to be joking? - Eskom wins awards despite load-shedding and ongoing wage negotiations

Stranger things have happened, we guess, but national power utility, Eskom, winning the Most Attractive Employer Award is surely up there with the absurd. Let’s take a look at the accolades they picked up at the ceremony, hosted by Universum Global, in Johannesburg on Monday. The power utility picked up the gold in the category..
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