(BLOG) Who will be able to afford two medical aids?
Being man down with a bad dose of flu (yes men do suffer flu worse than women) I had a short moment of consciousness and happened on the ENCA TV broadcast of our honourable Minister of Health spelling out the new Health Act, Whilst I couldn’t stay wake to listen to the entire presentation I did however catch the gist of it.
In a nutshell the intent is to level the playing fields so that everyone will have equal access to good health care. Certainly sounds good but one must question if will it not drive up the cost of medical aid. For it to be effective it will need people to have trust in the services. We will all be contributing to a central fund and that seems non-negotiable. This will not mean an end to medical schemes however and those who can afford both can still contribute to their own scheme which seems most likely for many.
So the question must be ‘How much trust do we have in a state run system?’
A day or two ago a friend was relating a story of her domestic helpers nephew being stabbed in Sea Vista on Saturday. His assailants dumped him in a nearby skip and basically left him for dead but fortunately his groans were heard by a passing pedestrian who called the ambulance.
The ambulance never arrived so a kind local transported the lad to Humansdorp ER in a critical condition.
Over weekends it seems Humansdorp hospital becomes somewhat like military field hospital at the height of battle and apparently the ER is overrun by the wounded from stabbings and beatings. Sadly because they were too busy to care for this critically wounded lad he had to wait his turn, no matter how critical his wounds were, Sadly some two hours later he died of his wounds never having been attended.
So the question is, will the government be able to guarantee that the same quality of ambulance and hospital services as that of the privately administered services. In a case like this unfortunate lad he would an ambulance arrive and would the hospital have sufficiently available trained staff to deal with him in an overrun ER. If so wonderful for every life is important. not only the wealthy.
However one has doubts for would it not be a case of 10 percent of the population paying for the medical expenses of the other 90% of the population. Methinks if you don’t have the funds to contribute to the state fund and your to own private medical aid the lines and the waiting periods are going to get a whole lot longer
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