Developing and Implementing Health Financing Strategies
Low- and middle-income countries are developing health financing strategies to map out how they will pay for universal health coverage. This brief discusses three activities that are valuable for producing sound strategies: convening multi-sectoral committees to...
Communication and Advocacy in Action: Building Momentum for Universal Health Coverage
Despite strong global commitment to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), inconsistent understanding and communication about UHC hinders progress. Experience suggests that advocating for and communicating about UHC requires deliberate, tailored, context-specific...
Securing Domestic Financing for Universal Health Coverage: Lessons in Process
Demand for health care is growing and external donor support is becoming more uncertain. Consequently, domestic resource mobilization (DRM) for health has emerged as an important topic in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This brief articulates the lessons...
Inpatient care costs of COVID-19 in South Africa’s public healthcare system
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has had a devastating impact globally, with severe health and economic consequences including increased disperaties in health inequalities. This has the potential to frustrate governments efforts towards universal health coverage. To...
Universal health coverage financing in South Africa: wishes vs reality
In 2011, the South African health minister, proposed a national health insurance (NHI) for South Africa with the aim to deliver universal health access and care to all South African residential citizens, with a single fund to cover all people, no matter their income....
The incidence of health financing in South Africa
There is an international call for countries to ensure universal health coverage. This call has been embraced in South Africa in the form of a National Health Insurance (NHI). Other forms of health financing in South Africa include general tax revenue, direct...
Paying for and receiving benefits from health services in South Africa: is the health system equitable?
This research paper examines the equity in the delivery and financing of health care for both the public and the private sectors in South Africa. Using nationally representative datasets and standard methodologies for assessing progressivity in health care financing...
Catastrophic health expenditures arising from out-of-pocket payments: Evidence from South African income and expenditure surveys
Catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) represents out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for health care which exceed a specified threshold of household’s income or household’s capacity to pay. This peer reviewed article examines CHE and the potential for such payments to...
Healthcare financing reform and national health insurance implementation in South Africa
This policy brief describes the implementation process of the national health insurance (NHI) in South Africa. The government of South Africa has implemented a number of reforms to move towards universal health coverage. Among the reforms include the development of...
South Africa’s national health insurance (NHI) policy
The NHI in South Africa is part of a health care financing reform that is designed to pool funds to actively purchase and provide access to quality, affordable personal healthcare services to the population based on their health needs, irrespective of their...