Tag: healthcare

Discussions at last month’s United Nations (UN) General Assembly served as a stark reminder of the danger United Nations and World Health Organization policies pose to the development of new innovations.

Following the discussions about the NHI (National Health Insurance), I am struck by how little regard is given to self-ownership. To preclude the possibility of ownership by someone else, self-ownership is a necessity. Black Africans were enslaved in the Americas because their self-ownership was not recognised.

When seeking care from a hospital or doctor, patients will now be required to present their proof of registration with the National Health Insurance (NHI) Fund to access healthcare services. Registration can be refused. Never before have South Africans’ constitutional right to access to healthcare been so brazenly threatened by a power-hungry government. Civil society must resist the proposed NHI scheme with all its might.

The latest iteration of the NHI Bill has confirmed what South Africans have known for more than a decade: that taxes will need to rise to fund the government’s unworkable and unfeasible NHI scheme. During these dire economic times, the NHI tax will be the final nail in the coffin for cash-strapped consumers struggling to make ends meet.

When in the grip of election fever, it becomes even more difficult than usual to decipher facts from the deluge of rhetoric and obfuscation proffered by politicians.

The NHI is set to be South Africa’s version of universal healthcare where resources are pooled in order to provide health services for everyone. Apart from the many flaws in the manner in which it is being implemented, a most serious flaw is that it is going to be prohibitively expensive. Scant attention has been paid in the South African public discourse to the structure of the proposed system and the problems inherent therein.

Every loving son ages with the same question on his mind: 'What are we going to do about my mom?' This question follows from some lessons I learned from an interview with Jason Calacanis, an American internet entrepreneur, angel investor, author and blogger and Seth Sternberg, CEO of Honor which is a business in the USA focused on private Home Care for the elderly.

Surgery is becoming ever more sophisticated and complex, and the rise of the super-specialist surgeon complements a modern world in which what we know about the human body is constantly evolving and improving.

The Department of Health’s Dr Anban Pillay has slammed the Free Market Foundation (FMF) for criticising the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill and has requested that we submit reasons why we believe the government’s proposed NHI scheme will not work and a list of proposed alternatives.

The field of bio-engineering is not new, despite its recent prominence: humans have been domesticating and selectively breeding animals since as far back as...