Health Economics Unit

2009

Quality and affordability an NHI must, 2 December 2009

The implementation of National Health Insurance could help South Africa achieve the millenium development goals, but to succeed it would have to be an affordable and quality public health service……DAILY NEWS

The Mercury: ANC needs to clarify health insurance plan, 2 December 2009

A universal health system would benefit both the poor and the rich, as medical aid schemes were becoming increasingly expensive….THE MERCURY

Press release: Information sheets explain health care financing in simple terms, 11 November 2009

Medical scheme members, particularly those who earn the lowest income, carry the greatest burden in funding health services. And lower-income medical scheme members contribute a higher percentage of their income than do higher-income members.These are just two facts about health care financing explained in “Who Pays for Health Care in South Africa?” – one of four new information sheets compiled by the Health Economics Unit (HEU) at UCT and released last week….READ FULL RELEASE

NHI is a boost to health, 9 November 2009

The ANC proposed national health insurance (NHI) as seen through the ideological lense by Jasson Urbach of the Free Market Foundation in the Sowetan of 21 October 2009, which he labels a “threat to health,” is nothing but a scare tactic designed to persuade the public and policy makers to abandon the idea of implementing it….Health-e News

The Minister of Health has issued a statement on the appointment of a ministerial advisory committee on the National Health Insurance.

Di McIntyre, professor at HEU has been appointed, along with others, including Dr Olive Shisana, CEO of the Human Science Research Council (HSRC); Mr Mark Heywood, executive director of the AIDS Law Project (ALP). To see the full list of committee members, click here.

Advisory body to drive talks on health insurance scheme ‘finalised’, 5 November 2009

AN ADVISORY body to drive consultation on the government’s National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme has been finalised and is expected to be announced soon by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. It is understood that the Human Sciences Research Council’s Olive Shisana, Treatment Action Campaign’s Mark Heywood and academic Di McIntyre are among those who will serve on the body……BUSINESS DAY

NHI coming: accept and embrace the challenge! October 2009

An NHI can help lo build a fairer,more united society. And this better, more decent society cannot be built overnight, just as an NHI cannot be created in just a year or two……..Health Management Review Africa

First social responsiveness award winners announced, 26 October 2009

Projects on disaster mitigation, gender violence and healthcare financing have won UCT’s first Social Responsiveness Awards…MONDAY PAPER

Poll favours state health insurance, if quality guaranteed, 22 October 2009

South Africans are willing to pay for national health insurance (NHI), but only if they are guaranteed quality services, a new survey shows. The study, commissioned by the Department of Health and published this month in the South African Medical Journal, offers important insights into public perceptions of NHI…. BUSINESS DAY
(Article based on: MCINTYRE, D., GOUDGE, J., HARRIS, B., NXUMALO, N. & NKOSI, M. (2009) Prerequisites for National Health Insurance in South Africa: Results of a national household survey. South African Medical Journal, 99, 725-729).

ANC spins a scheme to sell public health plan, 11 October 2009

The ANC will undertake a charm offensive to sell the national health insurance scheme to the public in the face of opposition from the private health sector. A popular campaign will promote the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) plan, an internal draft policy proposal reveals…. CITY PRESS

Private healthcare system ‘not sustainable’, 5 September 2009

The amount spent on private healthcare is inequitable and unsustainable, the Board of Healthcare Funders conference heard from numerous speakers. Professor Di Mclntyre, of the Health Economics Unit at the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town, told the conference that while it was a given that the public healthcare sector faces enormous challenges, the private sector has to acknowledge that it too is part of the healthcare problem…Pretoria News / Saturday Argus / Saturday Star

Parliament to grill private schemes over exclusivity, September 2, 2009

Private health care service providers would be hauled before Parliament to explain why their system had only favoured the rich, Bevan Goqwana, the chairman of the portfolio committee on health, said yesterday….BUSINESS REPORT

Private healthcare ‘likely to implode’, 1 September 2009

DEPUTY Health Minister Molefi Sefularo extended a reconciliatory hand to the private healthcare sector yesterday, saying that the government would welcome its assistance in implementing the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, but warned it would go ahead regardless…..BUSINESS DAY

What is killing the youth of South Africa?, 30 August 2009

The death rate among young people from illnesses such as tuberculosis and pneumonia, often connected to HIV/Aids, tripled over a nine-year period, a Statistics South Africa study has shown. Dr Susan Cleary, UCT’s Health Economic Unit director, said it was important to rectify the damage done because of the significant drop in spending on public health care. Cleary said the country was starting to feel the effects of HIV-related deaths….WEEKEND ARGUS

‘SA is a health hazard’, 26 August 2009

South Africa has the dubious distinction of having some of the worst health indicators in the world – a massive tuberculosis epidemic, the biggest HIV-positive population in the world, one of the worst rape rates and double the global average of violent deaths…….DAILY NEWS

SA health bedevilled by inequities – report, August 25 2009

South Africa has a “cocktail of four epidemics” – HIV and Aids, tuberculosis, violence, and poor maternal and child health – along with a rise in chronic diseases. This is according to a special edition of The Lancet, the respected UK-based medical journal, which is being released in Joburg on Tuesday. The Lancet report makes depressing reading. Some of the statistics – for HIV, TB and interpersonal violence – are among the worst in the world….IOL

South Africa embraces study critical of health policy, 24 August 2009

Leading South African scientists challenged the governing party on Monday to break with its deeply flawed record on AIDS and public health, spurring the country’s new health minister to say that he and his party shared their diagnosis of systemic problems and were determined to repair them…..NEW YORK TIMES

Health in South Africa, 24 August 2009

A collaboration between The Lancet and academic centres in South Africa to assess the health status in one of the most diverse regions of the world….THE LANCET ONLINE
(Read also report by Health-e and address by the Minister of Health at the media launch of the Lancet country series)

‘Enough for everyone, except the very greedy’ – Implications of NHI, 18 August 2009

Medical schemes will have to consider their future role. Private hospitals have been accused of making “super profits”, and medical aid administrators and pharmaceutical companies have been accused of benefiting at the expense of consumers……Business Times

Hope for thousands as stepped-up AIDS drug programme goes to top of agenda, 24 July 2009

 The National Health Council will discuss next week a much more aggressive Aids policy, which could see all HIV-positive babies and hundreds of thousands more adults taking anti-retroviral drugs, saving many thousands of lives in South Africa……CAPE TIMES

Many benefit from postdoc research, 27 July 2009 

“Although I’d always wanted to specialise in health economics, such opportunities were not available in Ethiopia. Indeed, health economics is a rare specialisation area, not offered in most low and middle-income countries”…… UCT MONDAY PAPER

Ask the people what they want from healthcare, 12 July 2009

The principles of a national health insurance (NHI) are simple—access to healthcare for all and everyone pitching in to pay for everyone….MAIL & GUARDIAN

OTF graduation dinner, 6 July 2009

A number of activities organised by the university’s Oliver Tambo Fellowship Programme (OTFP) included a graduation dinner attended by Dali Tambo. A seminar on national health insurance was held on 10 June for 26 senior public health managers……. UCT Daily News

Health system must first regain our trust, 22 June 2009

THERE is a crisis of trust in our healthcare system. Every day yet another group lament their lack of trust in “the system”, be they patients, doctors, nurses, wage negotiators or commentators…..CAPE TIMES

Drug shortages heap more woes on ailing healthcare system, 20 June 2009

Public health is in disarray as many hospitals and clinics countrywide experience medical supply shortages. The stock shortfall is so grave that some patients have had to leave the health facilities empty-handed….CITY PRESS

A chance to provide proper healthcare for all, 18 June 2009

THE South African health system is in deep crisis. We need a major transformation of our health system and we need it now. Problems in the public health sector are splashed across the front pages of our newspapers on a weekly basis: patients being turned away from public clinics and hospitals and some dying as a result, some provinces running out of antiretroviral drugs, the doctors’ strike, and so on…..CAPE TIMES

Curing our sick health system, June 14, 2009

An ANC task team headed by the former director-general of health, Dr Olive Shisana, and dominated by trade unionists, is trying to convince the ANC and the government to hastily implement a national health insurance (NHI) plan, but many believe it will spell disaster for the buckling public health system….CAPE ARGUS

NHI will be good for the poor, Jun 13, 2009

The key research document used for the ANC’s national health insurance policy — prepared by the Health Economics Unit at the University of Cape Town — shows that 36% of the country’s health benefits were spent on a group with 10% of its health needs, while 12.5% of benefits went to the sickest group, with 25% of the health needs…..The Times

Contrasts in health care are stark and evil, 8 June 2009

I am a health economist visiting South Africa from Australia. With respect to South African society, as a foreigner the thing that strikes me more than anything is the continuing poverty amidst such incredible affluence……. Cape Times

‘Rich-country’ solutions, 2 June 2009

An ANC task team headed by former director general of health Olive Shisana is trying to convince the ANC and government to implement a national health insurance (NHI) swiftly, but many believe this could be the kiss of death for an already buckling public health system. ……. Mail & Guardian

The health system of powerlessness, 2 June 2009

There is often a “vicious cycle” of power and distrust between patients and health care providers in Africa, often fed by another problematic cycle between employers and providers. ……. UCT Daily News

Flood or trickle? 21 May 2009

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane in my view is rightly critical of Dr Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid (May 19). The book has unfortunately won much publicity and praise in the west where so many look for reasons to cut off aid to Africa – and lo! – a black African woman is providing “evidence” to support such a move. ……. Cape Times

South Africa faces treatment funding shortfall, 23 April 2009

South Africa will face tough choices in the years ahead as its government strives to extend treatment to all who need it through the public health system, a leading health economist told the Fourth South African AIDS Conference earlier this month. …. AIDSmap.com

An outsider feels obliged to ask, why are South Africans taking this lying down?, 9 April 2009

Robert Burns, the Scottish bard, wrote of the need to ‘see ourselves as others see us’. As a visiting Australian academic to UCT, I thought that for South Africans to see themselves as this ‘other’ sees you might be useful at this sad time in your country’s history. …. Cape Times

A more unified South African AIDS conference, 8 April 2009

For the most part, there seemed to be a rather harmonious tone set last week between the South African Government, civil society, scientists and health professionals at the Fourth South African AIDS Conference held in Durban. This in itself is remarkable. A barometer for whatever is going on in the fight against HIV in the country, the conference has always been marked by controversy. …. AIDSMap

National health unsureness, 7 April 2009

To many, it’s the only answer to the enormous inequalities in South Africa’s healthcare system. Others fear it may limit the variety of health services available in the country. And some warn that it will mean the end of private practice and medical aid schemes. …. Health24

2008

Towards affordable healthcare in Ghana, SA and Tanzania, 3 November 2008

In the latest edition of the World Health Organisation Bulletin health economists explore the extent of fragmentation within the health systems of three African countries. …. Healthe

Welcome to tobacco country, 15 August 2008

We might think we’re big in mining, synthetic fuels, cellphones or banking, but our biggest listed company on the JSE soon will be in tobacco. British American Tobacco (BAT) will dwarf all other South African behemoths by market capitalisation when it sets up a secondary listing on the JSE later in the year….Mail & Guardian

Professor Di McIntyre: inaugural lecture, 4 August 2008

In her inaugural lecture on 30 July Professor Di McIntyre took a critical look at the current health system and the challenges facing it. …. UCT Monday Paper

Private healthcare sector’s big three give upward kick to prices, says economist, 28 July, 2008

Too much power concentrated within the country’s three largest hospital groups was pushing up prices in the private healthcare sector, Di McIntyre, a health economist from the University of Cape Town, said yesterday. …. Business Report

Africa: Meeting The Abuja Promise Goes Beyond The 15 Percent Target, 11 July 2008

When the African Union (AU) Heads of State committed to allocating at least 15% of annual government budgets to their health sectors In Abuja, Nigeria in 2001, they also called on high income countries to fulfil their own commitment to devote at least 0.7% of their GNP as ODA to developing countries and to cancel Africa’s external debt in favour of increased investment in the social sector. …. allafrica.com

Health minister to assume more powers if new bills are passed, 17 June 2008

Two bills recently tabled in Parliament are set to shake up the private hospital industry and centralise decision-making over hospital tariffs as well as the regulation of new medicines and scientific trials within the health minister’s office. …. Healthe

Cabinet to breathe life into health insurance, 15 July 2008

Fourteen years after it was first mooted, the national health insurance scheme appears to be moving towards implementation. Some of the policy documents formulated over the past decade will be tabled before the cabinet tomorrow. …. Business Report

Smoking claims over 40 000 annually, 6 May 2008

More than 42 000 annual deaths in SA are attributed to tobacco use, the Cancer Association of SA (Cansa) said at the Health Portfolio Committee’s public hearing in Cape Town on Tuesday……IOL

2007

Medical doctoral candidates honoured, 12 December 2007

The Faculty of Health Sciences honoured their senior doctoral and doctoral graduates at a function at the MAC Club last night, hosted by the deputy dean (postgraduate affairs), Prof Kit Vaughan. …. UCT Daily News

Up the rungs, 12 Nov 2007

Forty-one academic staff and seven scientific and technical officers received ad hominem promotions. They were congratulated by Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Njabulo S Ndebele at a function in the Senate Room last week. …. UCT Monday Paper

Compulsory health insurance ‘critical’, 9 December 2007

Compulsory health insurance could be an effective way of dealing with problems in the private sector and addressing disparities between public and private health sectors. …. Cape Argus

2006

Determining a viable dispensing fee, 6 December 2006

Professor Di McIntyre, chair of government’s Pricing Committee, tasked with determining a viable dispensing fee for pharmacists, spoke exclusively to Health-e. …. Healthe

2005

Medical aid cover to benefit low earners, 8 October, 2005

The National Treasury is proposing to change the way your employer’s subsidy to your medical aid is taxed. The proposal would result in more low-income earners joining medical schemes. …. Personal Finance