moving towards universal coverage in south africa? lessons from a voluntary government insurance scheme

Clicks: 632
ID: 241055
2013
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Popular

Ranked #1 of 234 articles by views in sustainability (switzerland)

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 234 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Background: In 2005, the South African government introduced a voluntary, subsidised health insurance scheme for civil servants. In light of the global emphasis on universal coverage, empirical evidence is needed to understand the relationship between new health financing strategies and health care access thereby improving global understanding of these issues. Objectives: This study analysed coverage of the South African government health insurance scheme, the population groups with low uptake, and the individual-level factors, as well as characteristics of the scheme, that influenced enrolment. Methods: Multi-stage random sampling was used to select 1,329 civil servants from the health and education sectors in four of South Africa's nine provinces. They were interviewed to determine factors associated with enrolment in the scheme. The analysis included both descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. Results: Notwithstanding the availability of a non-contributory option within the insurance scheme and access to privately-provided primary care, a considerable portion of socio-economically vulnerable groups remained uninsured (57.7% of the lowest salary category). Non-insurance was highest among men, black African or coloured ethnic groups, less educated and lower-income employees, and those living in informal-housing. The relatively poor uptake of the contributory and non-contributory insurance options was mostly attributed to insufficient information, perceived administrative challenges of taking up membership, and payment costs. Conclusion: Barriers to enrolment include insufficient information, unaffordability of payments and perceived administrative complexity. Achieving universal coverage requires good physical access to service providers and appropriate benefit options within pre-payment health financing mechanisms.
Reference Key
govender2013globalmoving Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors ;Veloshnee Govender;Matthew F. Chersich;Bronwyn Harris;Olufunke Alaba;John E. Ataguba;Nonhlanhla Nxumalo;Jane Goudge
Journal sustainability (switzerland)
Year 2013
DOI
10.3402/gha.v6i0.19253
URL
http://www.globalhealthaction.net/index.php/gha/article/view/19253/pdf_1
Keywords
health insurance universal coverage civil servants south africapublic aspects of medicine

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.