LETTER: Health minister is misleading

Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi is dangerously misleading. He is attempting to create the impression that in a less-developed country such as SA, with large inequalities, only a fully state funded health system can provide adequate medical care (“Sick South Africans wait as health posts stand empty”, September 10).

This is belied by the tendency among our Brics partners to rely more and more on private health insurance. In Russia and China — countries that usually classify themselves as socialist — there is an ever-heavier reliance on private medical insurance. This is also the case in India and Brazil.

The reasons for this shift are disenchantment with state- provided healthcare and the demands of the growing middle classes. Clearly, these leading — and in no way free-market obsessed — countries see benefits in expanding their private medical systems, even if these are not yet available to all.

Our minister, on the other hand, appears to be a far better socialist than our Brics partners — he sees levelling down as the way to go. Yet if we want to see progress, levelling up, not down, is the way to go. Brazil sees this. India sees this. China sees this. Russia sees this.

It is true that there is one country that bans private funds from covering state medical benefits — Canada. But Canada is an advanced and wealthy country, with excellent governance and the highest levels of state services. If we wish to eventually reach the status of Canada, we must first nourish our private centres of excellence so that they can grow consistently and lead the way.

Willem Cronje
Cape Town

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