PHM-Exch> Email alert: SAFM 'Workers on Wednesday'radio show: Health financing and the NHI in South Africa

[Rebecca Pointer]

SAFM and Workers World Media Productions, drawing on input from the 
Regional Network for Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa 
(EQUINET), will be broadcasting a live show on Wednesday 2 September 2009 
just after the 10am news on SAFM, on health financing in South Africa, 
with a focus on the proposed National Health Insurance.


The show will cover the following:
**Part 1 **
Health care financing in South Africa is inadequate, and in recent 
years we have been moving away from achieving the Abuja target of 15% 
government funding for health care. This has resulted in numerous crises 
in the public health sector, and most South Africans (about 41 million) 
are unable to access decent, adequate health care, as enshrined in our 
constitution. South Africans that do access decent, adequate health care 
primarily do so through private funding (typically private health 
insurance schemes), but even in this sector, costs are spiralling and 
the package of benefits on offer is declining.

**Part 2**
To increase public health funding in South Africa, the government has 
proposed the introduction of a National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme. A 
recent national household survey found that 71% of medical scheme 
members were willing to join a publicly supported health insurance 
scheme if their monthly contribution was less than for current medical 
schemes. The NHI has been proposed to create a mechanism to level the 
playing field and create equitable distribution of resources resulting 
in high quality of health services for all the people. Universal access 
to a basic package of services for both the rich and poor will be 
achieved by the NHI and the costs of health care for poor and middle 
class South Africans will decrease./

Please listen into the show, and consider phoning in to make comments - 
the number is 0891104207. You can listen to SAFM at 
http://antbiome-jhb01.antfarm.co.za/sabc/player.asp?id=9 

PLEASE advertise widely.

___________________________________________________________________________________

EQUINET, the Regional Network on Equity in Health in Southern Africa, is 
a network of professionals, civil society members, policy makers, state 
officials and others within the region who have come together as an 
equity catalyst, to promote and realise shared values of equity and 
social justice in health. For more information on EQUINET please see our 
website at: http://www.equinetafrica.org <http://www.equinetafrica.org/>

This programme draws on the fair financing theme of work in EQUINET 
co-ordinated by University of Cape Town Health Economics Unit.

 




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