Latest News

• New journal article: Moving towards universal coverage

  ATAGUBA, J. E. & AKAZILI, J. (2010) Health care financing in South Africa: moving towards universal coverage. Continuing Medical Education, 28 (2).
  The World Health Organization (WHO) has encouraged countries to move towards achieving universal coverage – equity in access and guaranteed financial risk protection – where prepayment and pooling of resources and risks are the [...]

  Monday, March 1st, 2010

• New information sheet: Who benefits from health care?

  The latest HEU information sheet looks at who benefits from health care in South Africa. Download PDF.

  Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

• New brochures about accessing health care

  Short, summarised brochures are available that highlight the key findings from Phase 1 of the REACH programme (Researching Equitable Access to Healthcare) in South Africa. Using 3 tracers (TB, ART and Maternal services), the study investigates issues related to access and health care in 4 sub-districts.

  Download brochure that provides more information about REACH
  Download brochure outlining [...]

  Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

• Research report: Access challenges in TB, ART & maternity services

  A new report by the Centre for Health Policy, University of Witwatersrand; the  Health Economics Unit, University of Cape Town and McMaster University provides highlights of the findings of the phase 1 Researching Equity in Access to Health Care (REACH) project, completed in 2009. REACH aims to document levels of and inequities in access, according [...]

  Monday, February 8th, 2010

• Call for abstracts: The First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research

  The call for abstracts from the World Health Organisation and partners for the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research is now open, until the 30 April 2010!
  Researchers, policy-makers, representatives of donor and multinational organizations, and other stakeholders representing diverse constituencies will gather in Montreux, Switzerland to share evidence, identify significant knowledge gaps, and set a research [...]

  Friday, February 5th, 2010

• New journal article: Health insurance and household decisions

  KOCH, S. & ALABA, O. (2010) On health insurance and household decisions: A treatment effect analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 70, 175-182.
  In developing countries, where health insurance is not a commonly purchased financial instrument,recent debates have revolved around extending health insurance coverage to a wider range of the population, primarily via compulsory insurance schemes. However, [...]

  Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

• New journal article: Trade-offs in scaling up HIV treatment in South Africa

  Dr Sue Cleary has written a commentary for Health Policy and Planning titled ‘Trade-offs in scaling up HIV treatment in South Africa’ (Jan 2010).
  This commentary takes a different perspective on the equity/efficiency trade-off through focusing on how the cost-effectiveness of the chosen treatment strategy has an influence on the costs of scaling up as well [...]

  Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

• HEU policy brief: Direct costs of HIV health care

  The Health Economics Unit (HEU) has produced a new policy brief:
  What drives costs during the early and late phases of ART in South Africa?
  The research describes the direct health care costs in a South African private-sector HIV/AIDS programme and examines the drivers of the costs of HIV health care around the time of ART initiation [...]

  Monday, January 25th, 2010

• HEU 20th anniversary

  The Health Economics Unit at the University of Cape Town was founded in 1990 by Professor Di McIntyre in collaboration with a number of public health specialists. 2010 marks the Unit’s 20th anniversary to look back and celebrate academic excellence in research, training, capacity-building and policy influence. Over the course of this year, we will [...]

  Monday, January 18th, 2010

• New PhD candidates

  Mr John Ataguba (HEU Lecturer) will be undertaking a Phd with UCT’s School of Economics. The dissertation will analyse the distributional impact of health care finance in South Africa.
  The HEU will be supervising Ms Naomi Lince’s PhD which will undertake economic investigations regarding abortion services in South Africa.

  Friday, January 15th, 2010