OECD Health Working Papers
This series is designed to make available to a wider readership health studies prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language - English or French - with a summary in the other.
- ISSN: 18152015 (online)
- https://doi.org/10.1787/18152015
International Comparison of South African Private Hospital Price Levels
The health system in South Africa is unique in many ways. South Africa spends 41.8% of total health expenditures on private voluntary health insurance – more than any OECD country – but only 17% of the population – mostly high income citizens - can afford to purchase private insurance. Given the magnitude of private health expenditures, the activities in the private health care market have an important impact on the functioning of the health care system as a whole. Medical schemes (private health insurance) in South Africa mainly finance care that is predominantly delivered by private providers (i.e., private hospitals, specialists, general practitioners, pharmacies). Therefore, these schemes primarily finance an alternative to seeking care in the public sector and offer services that duplicate those available in the public sector.
JEL:
I13: Health, Education, and Welfare / Health / Health Insurance, Public and Private;
M41: Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics / Accounting and Auditing / Accounting;
D24: Microeconomics / Production and Organizations / Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity;
C43: Mathematical and Quantitative Methods / Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics / Index Numbers and Aggregation; Leading Indicators
- Click to access:
-
Click to download PDF - 2.33MBPDF