Medical aid is a form of insurance where monthly installments are paid – called a contribution or premium – in return for financial cover for medical treatment as well as medical expenses.
In South Africa, medical aid is considered a “luxury” as upper and middle class families and individuals make up the majority of people who have it. Therefore, this allows for all medical expenses and treatments to be covered.
In South Africa, medical aid is the considered as the deciding factor that defines the type of treatment that people receive while in hospital. A patient with medical aid is more likely to be found in a private hospital with top of the range facilities, while individuals who do not have a medical aid are more often than not found in public hospitals.
On the occasion that certain individuals without medical aid are patients in private hospitals, their treatment is hindered or considered less important compared to an individual with medical aid. In recent a event, two of my friends who were in a car accident – one with medical aid and the other without. They both were sent to a private hospital where the one, with less severe injuries and medical aid, was treated first and the other, with a broken arm and no medical aid, treated only later in the afternoon.
Therefore, it is of strong belief that hospitals are more concerned about money that is guaranteed instead of providing proper healthcare (Naidoo, 2019).
Article Extract
The following is an extract from South Africa’s Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, speaking about the unfair health care system in place in South Africa.
“There is no doubt that the current health care system is in severe, severe distress. The first [problem] is the exorbitant cost of private health care; the second is the poor quality in the public health care system. And we are solving them together in order to achieve universal health coverage. The rich and the poor must be able to use BOTH healthcare systems, and you can only do that if there is a common pool of funds for universal health care cover.” — Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Health Minister. (King, 2018)
References
King, S.-J. (2018, June 22). 702. Retrieved May 2019, from 702: http://www.702.co.za/articles/308759/rich-and-poor-must-be-able-to-use-both-healthcare-systems-health-minister
Naidoo, M. (2019, May 5). Idependent Media. Retrieved May 2019, from IOL: https://www.iol.co.za/sunday-tribune/news/durban-man-in-coma-told-to-leave-private-hospital-over-bill-query-22618819
One thought on “Money means more than proper health care – Luke Davids”
Hi,
Content: your photo correlates well with your text. I like that the photo is open to interpretation.
Argument: Overall it is easy to understand what argument you are making and the texts structure makes sense.
References: In paragraph 2 you write that “it is belived by by many..”. This is known as making a claim to an anonymous authority and should, if possible, be avoided. Apart from that I think that you support your arguments well enough.
I am unsure of which reference style that you are told to use. We are told to use the APA style, in which references are shown in chronological order as they appear in the text
Writing: Excellent formatting and writing. And as mentioned, it is easy to understand what argument you are making.
Further comments:
– I find it interesting how divisive a healthcare system that is split into public and private can be. We have access to private healthcare in Norway as well, and there are debates from time to time about what impact this has on our society and aim towards social equality.
– If the reference style was unintentional then it is important to practice and read up on how to do it according to what style your school uses. However if it’s because it’s a style that I don’t know about, then I’ll retract this comment.
– another tip: if you’re using Word to write assignments in, that needs references then there is an option in Word, that makes it so at Word can automatically fix your references.