Should access to quality health care be a basic human right?
Should the level of health care you receive be dependent on your financial status? Section 27 of the South African Constitution provides that everyone has the right to have access to health care services, including reproductive health care services and no one may be refused emergency medical treatment.
The reality is that only 15% of South Africans (never mind the undocumented immigrants from other African countries) have medical aid. With a population of sixty million people only nine million have some sort of medical aid which often is only a hospital plan.
The remaining fifty one million have to attend public health clinics and state hospitals. With the best will in the world, these facilities simply can’t cope. They lack staff, medication, equipment is often old and not maintained, insufficient bedding, poor plumbing and electrical supplies … the list goes on.
Way back in the late 1980s, before the end of apartheid, I worked for a construction company that built low cost housing in Sebokeng, Alexandra, Soweto and other townships. These townships had no provision for clinics, shops, hospitals, schools, places of worship etc. I could not understand why. These residents were expected to catch taxis, buses or trains to Johannesburg city centre to work, shop, attend school, get medical help. Absolute lunacy.
Fast forward to post apartheid in the 21st Century. Everyone is politically free to live wherever they choose and hopefully can afford. Did the developers / politicians learn the lessons of apartheid South Africa?
No! Huge townhouse developments sprung up almost overnight in the suburbs. How many state schools, public health clinics and state hospitals have been built to serve these millions of people? Greed and corruption has allowed these developments without requiring the developers to ensure the provision of essential services.
Due to incompetence and corruption, some of the facilities that have been built, have not been staffed and equipped and are eventually left to go to ruin.
The rural areas, are far worse off than the urban areas. There is poor transport, very few qualified staff, and if patients need specialist care they have to travel vast distances to get help from already overloaded state facilities.
Dave and I do not have medical aid. In the 18 years we have been together we have lived in 5 provinces in South Africa - Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KZN, North West Province and Gauteng. Dave has attended the public clinics in each of these provinces to get his monthly medication and insulin. Some of these have been in big cities, some in tiny villages.
Without exception, despite long queues often exposed to harsh sun or rain, and poor resources, Dave has been treated with respect and care by the staff. It does help that he treats the staff with respect and a good sense of humour. They may or may not have your medication. If not, you have to go back again which is frustrating but doable if you have transport and can afford another trip.
If you don’t have money or too sick to travel, tough luck.
If you have a decent medical aid, you are able to have regular dental checkups, eye testing, extensive blood tests, X-rays, Scans, Mammograms etc. If not, you have to go to your local clinic, get a referral letter to the appropriate state hospital, queue for hours to get a file and once you are in the system, you will have an appointment scheduled for some time in the future.
When you finally get scheduled for a scan or cancer treatment or whatever, you may get there at 5am to get in the queue, wait for hours and find that the equipment is broken. Come back … whenever and hope for the best. 
For those lucky enough to be employed there is always the risk of being fired or having to take unpaid leave attend clinic and hospital appointments.
There is something very wrong with society when for profit pharmaceutical, medical insurance and private hospital companies make billions in dollars in operating profit while the majority of the population does not have access to decent health care.
South Africa is not unique. Yes, we are a third world country and we have many problems due to greed, corruption and mismanagement.
In first and third world countries, during the pandemic, the corruption and greed was horrific. Selling PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and “miracle treatments” for exhorbitant amounts without caring about the millions dying and suffering.
You may have seen on TV or read about the shooting of the CEO of United Healthcare in America. While I don’t condone murder, I can only imagine how desperate this young man was.
Here is a link to a video you might like to watch titled “United Healthcare CEO’s hidden scandal exposed. United Healthcare is not the only bad apple in USA Healthcare but it is the largest health insurance company in the United States by revenue.
I struggle with the debates around the right to choose abortion or voluntary euthanasia. I am not looking at it from an ethical or religious point of view. We have millions of starving children brought into this world who are left to fend for themselves. It is somehow OK to leave these children to lead lives of malnourishment, no education, no prospect of getting work and many eventually die.
Having just turned 70, the choice to be able to choose how and when we want to end our life is often top of my mind.
I know these topics are very contentious and it is difficult for the medical professionals and/or families who have to switch off machines or give a lethal dose to a loved one. Yet, it is somehow OK to deny poor sick people equal care and let them suffer.
How does this relate to My Weight loss Journey?
This is the 11th article in My Weight loss Journey. You can read the first one here.
I have lost 18kg since April 2024. I am much fitter and healthier than I have been in years. I know I need to have blood and other tests to see if my chronic medications are still correct. Paying to see a private doctor, have expensive blood tests, MRIs, Mammograms, X-rays, ECGs etc and then pay for medication is simply no longer an option.
Living in a home for senior citizens where most of the residents can't afford private health care, the choice is to leave home at 4am and spend hours in queues at the state hospitals where you may or may not receive treatment, or you take the decision to let nature take its course. By the time many of them receive the help that they need it is too late.
The world has lost its moral compass. A few multi-billionaires dictate what care the other 8 billion people can have.
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