We need better value from every rand we spend on healthcare in South Africa
Aviva Tugendhaft and Karen Hofman look at what is needed to prioritise healthcare resources on a finite budget SA IS in the process of preparing for a National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme to reach universal health coverage by 2025. Attaining this goal in a resource-constrained environment will rely in part on understanding which interventions should be prioritised and how resources should be allocated.Our healthcare budget, similar to healthcare budgets around the world, is not infinite. This means every rand spent on one intervention is a rand not spent on another. Trade-offs are inevitable. How we prioritise our resources in a fair and equitable manner must be based on evidence of what really works and at what cost. This will ensure that the population receives good value for its healthcare rand.These factors are pertinent today as we mark the first Universal Health Coverage Day, an initiative endorsed by over 500 organisations globally, including the World Bank and the World He...
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