Spotlight’s Vote4Health

In the run-up to South Africa’s general elections in May 2019 Spotlight will be publishing a series of articles under the banner #Vote4Health.

In this series we will take stock of the state of healthcare services in South Africa 25 years into democracy. We will revisit some of the places and  people we wrote about previously, such as in our 2014 report ‘Death and Dying in the Eastern Cape’, and ask “what has changed?”

We will also contextualise our assessment of the state of healthcare in South Africa within the current healthcare reform processes in the country – most notably National Health Insurance (NHI). Is NHI the answer to the crisis in the public healthcare system, or is NHI just cynical politics? How will NHI change the reality in forgotten places like Lusikisiki and Kakamas? If not NHI, then what is the alternative?

We will study the different proposals political parties have put on the table and assess how well their solutions measure up to our healthcare problems. Our editors will of course provide their views, but as always, we will invite a variety of op-eds from external contributors with a variety of different views.

Ultimately, we are hoping that the #Vote4Health series will play a part in helping people think about what their vote will mean for healthcare in this country. That is about as much as we can do – the rest is up to you.

 

Note: Spotlight is independent from all political parties and does not campaign for or against any parties. In the interest of healthy public discourse, we will however publish criticism of political parties or their policies where such criticism is fair and reasonable.