FACT SHEET: FUNDING THE RIGHT TO HEALTH

The document analyzes the disparity between South Africa's private and public healthcare systems, noting that while public spending has increased since 1994, austerity measures and underfunding have led to severe staffing shortages and declining standards. It highlights a critical gap in per capita spending and a surge in medico-legal claims, arguing that the current funding model is insufficient to implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) or meet the Abuja Declaration targets.

• South Africa maintains a dual healthcare system with significant resource inequality: while only 17% of the population has private medical insurance, private sector healthcare spending is 4.2% of GDP, nearly equal to the public sector's 4.4%.
• Public health funding has been constrained by austerity policies, resulting in a failure to meet the 2001 Abuja Declaration commitment of 15% of government expenditure. This has led to a growth in unfunded commitments, with health departments accounting for 57% of unpaid government bills in 2017/18.
• The public health system faces a severe human resources crisis characterized by vacant posts and an aging workforce. In 2018, the Treatment Action Campaign reported 38,217 unfilled posts, and in 2017, vacant posts in Limpopo constituted 25% of the healthcare workforce.
• There is a dramatic increase in the financial burden of medico-legal claims against provincial health departments, rising from R28.6 billion in 2015 to R80.4 billion in 2018, which the document links to chronic underfunding and staffing shortages.
• Health outcomes vary significantly by geography; for example, life expectancy is 64 years in urban Gauteng compared to 59 years in rural Limpopo.

APA

Institute for Economic Justice (2019). FACT SHEET: FUNDING THE RIGHT TO HEALTH. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Funding-the-Right-to-Health-Fact-Sheet-min.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Economic Justice. FACT SHEET: FUNDING THE RIGHT TO HEALTH. 2019. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Funding-the-Right-to-Health-Fact-Sheet-min.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Economic Justice |title=FACT SHEET: FUNDING THE RIGHT TO HEALTH |date=2019 |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Funding-the-Right-to-Health-Fact-Sheet-min.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforeconomicjustice2019fact, author = {{Institute for Economic Justice}}, title = {{FACT SHEET: FUNDING THE RIGHT TO HEALTH}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, year = {2019}, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Funding-the-Right-to-Health-Fact-Sheet-min.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }