Health Budget 2024 fails to address poverty-related health issues and build trust for NHI – SAMRC

The 2024 national budget offer some glimmers but allocations for direct health benefits fall short of making a difference to people’s health and wellbeing. These include a ring-fenced allocation to crack down on corruption in health to inspire trust for the National Health Insurance, taxing accessories for e-cigarettes, a jacked up child-support grant, clarity on plans dealing with climate change and its impacts on human health, and finally greater investment to enhance women’s capabilities alongside the Covid-19 grant, researchers from the South African Medical Research Council write exclusively for Spotlight.

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OPINION: Underinvestment in healthcare infrastructure will cost us in the long run

Investment in public health facilities is crucial as the country weathers storms on various fronts – from drought (water shortages) and flooding putting strain on health infrastructure to a harsh economic climate that makes private healthcare unaffordable to more and more people. Mbali Baduza and Matshidiso Lencoasa assess the investments in infrastructure in the budget and what it means for the planned National Health Insurance system.

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Climate change can set back maternal health, says researcher

Researchers around the world are drawing an ever-more distinct line between rising global temperatures and negative effects on maternal, foetal, and infant health. One of these researchers is Professor Matthew Chersich of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Research Institute. Ufrieda Ho chatted to Chersich after he delivered his inaugural lecture at the end of August.

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Opinion: The new health system we build through the NHI must be green

The recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape showed us how climate change harms people’s health and healthcare services. On the other hand, modern health care systems contribute to climate change through large greenhouse gas emissions. In the development of South Africa’s National Health Insurance system we have an opportunity to address both these sides of the challenge that climate change poses for health systems, argues Dr Louis Reynolds of the People’s Health Movement SA.

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