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Thread: Private hospitals: a rehash of the drug pricing debacle?

  1. #11
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dsd View Post
    Social heath insurance on the cards?

    ...and possibly forced social health insurance — good or bad, what do you think?
    Is it just me or does it seem like government seem to think they have to play mommy and daddy for the more and more people? I cannot help but to wonder why they are interfering more and more in what should be a decision taken by us. If I have a medical aid, hospital plan or nothing is my business. And if the health department is going to run the SHI I do not want to know what a mess it will be. And if they really want to mess it up they must give it to ICASA to regulate and Telkom to run!
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  2. #12
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    I just have to agree with Chatmaster. Government's track record on achieving the target results when "intervening" has been less than encouraging so far.

    Government has got good cause for concern about the cost of private healthcare. The more expensive private healthcare is, the more people that are dependant on gov's healthcare system. And I can understand why they might want to shift the cost of that load.

    But let's face it, which hospitals are having problems in providing adequate healthcare? The government run institutions or the private ones?

    Government needs to demonstrate its ability to run a decent facility before it starts meddling with the private sector.

  3. #13
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    I found it quite interesting that Cuba has a free health system which costs far less than the UK NHS, and functions better than the US health system.

    This snapshot of Havana shows a healthcare system that is extensive, accessible and, at times, ropey. What is unique is the blend of third world conditions with a progressive ethos and first world results.

    Michael Moore’s documentary, Sicko, holds up Cuba as a model. Whether it is a consultation, dentures or open-heart surgery, citizens are entitled to free treatment. As a result this impoverished Caribbean island has better health indicators than its much wealthier neighbour 144km across the Florida straits.

    “There’s a reason Cubans live on average longer than we do,” Moore told Time magazine. “I’m not trumpeting [Fidel] Castro or his regime. I just want to say to fellow Americans, ‘C’mon, we’re the United States. If they can do this, we can do it.’”

    Other outsiders such as Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, a United Kingdom parliamentary select committee, and an array of NGOs have also lauded Cuban healthcare. Even some senior US officials, between bouts of Castro-bashing, have ceded some plaudits.

    “Health and education are the revo-lution’s pillars of legitimacy so the government has to make them work,” says a senior Western diplomat in Havana. “If they don’t it loses all its moral authority. My sense is that the health system is quite good.”

    But how good, exactly? And how does Cuba do it given such limited means? Neither question is easy to answer. The communist government is not transparent, some statistics are questionable and citizens have reason to muffle complaints lest they be jailed as political dissidents.

    According to the World Health Organisation, a Cuban man can expect to live to 75 and a woman to 79. The probability of a child dying aged under five is five per 1 000 live births. That is better than the US and on a par with the UK.

    Yet these world-class results are delivered by a shoestring annual per capita health expenditure of $260 -- less than a 10th of Britain’s $3 065 and a fraction of the US’s $6 543.

    There is no mystery about Cuba’s core strategy: prevention. From promoting exercise, hygiene and regular check-ups, the system is geared towards averting illnesses and treating them before they become advanced and costly.

    Full article on M&G Online
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  4. #14
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    I'd suspect the MacDonalds index would also give a clue as to how it is done so cheaply. But of course - no MacDonalds.

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    Anyone read the letter printed in the latest copy of noseweek from a qualified nursing sister regarding her treatment in a private hospital?
    Besides a lack of sufficiently qualified nurses on duty, additional medical costs caused by negligence by untrained staff, whilst bedridden for 5 days did not receive a bed bath as she did not have her own soap, her account was "inflated" and on advising her medical aid about the errors, was told that they had an agreement with the private clinic that all accounts presented would be paid in full without query?

    How can medical aids justify increased premiums on the basis of increased funds paid out, if they blatantly make no attempt to even address fraudulent costs?

    Yvonne

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