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The 31% increases in doctors’ consultation fees comes less than three months after that medical aid schemes increased their premiums. Concerns are rising that the many that have now been able to use private health care may have to return to an under-financed public health sector. Expressing its concerns, COSATU today maintained that "these astronomical increases in medical costs will hit on the pocket of the workers in particular, who are forced to use the private sector because the public health sector is on the brink of collapse. The impact will be worsened by the fact that some medical aids schemes are already stating categorically that they will not be paying for the increase in doctors’ fees, meaning that the consumer will not only pay increased medical aid premiums, but will also have to fork out an additional 31% from his or her own pocket." The trade union sees the significant price rise in the wider poverty perspective, were the mainly white South African upper and middle class will be able to sustain their medical expenses, while the poorer, mostly black, majority of the country keeps losing ground. COSATU claims that "for the majority of the working class even access to basics like clean water is still a luxury. This increase comes at a time when more and more of the black working class is getting impoverished as their wages decline and jobs are wiped out be massive economic restructuring." The high and spiraling costs of private health care have actually put into question the very survival of the private health care system. Private health care is pricing itself out of the market, in spite of Government’s attempt to ensure affordable health care through passing of various bills like the Medicines and Related Substance Control Bill. "This private sector only serves 18% of the population, mainly the white, rich, young and healthy, although it consumes 60% of the national health resources," according to COSATU. - The existence of the private health system has undermined the public health care system by shifting the costs of caring for patients with serious illnesses like TB and AIDS to the public sector and by setting up parallel institutions that divert potential paying patients from the public system - poor = public, rich = private, says COSATU spokesperson Josephilda Nhlapo-Hlope, adding that the whole health care system needs complete overhauling. Pharmaceutical companies to sue Government The South African Health Ministry has already stated that the Government will oppose the application which will be heard in the Pretoria High Court on 5 March. The imports, illegal according to international law recognised by South Africa, have found widespread support among South African organisations, the Government and the public at large, making AIDS drugs accessible to a majority of the populations. Parliament had passed the Medicines and Related Substance Control Amendments Act in 1997 as means to facilitate these imports. The act allows for parallel importation of generic drugs and issuing of compulsory license. From its inception, the legislation was strenuously opposed by opposition parties and the pharmaceutical companies on the grounds of protecting intellectual property rights. The Act has been in limbo due to the court challenge brought by the pharmaceutical companies which is now due to be heard in March 2001 in the Pretoria High Court. In a statement released today, COSATU regards the court case by the pharmaceutical companies as "a serious stumbling bloc to the transformation of the health care system." In the trade union's view, "it is also tantamount to profiteering at the expense of the health of the majority of South Africans who currently face prohibitively expensive cost of drugs." - The drug company's patents cannot be allowed to hold at ransom the health of our nation, the trade union states. COSATU therefore calls for the acceleration of the court case. Further, COSATU "calls on the democratic forces to mobilise against this contemptuous action by the pharmaceutical companies." The South African trade union SAMWU (organising the country's 120 000 municipal workers) goes further in its reactions and calls for a nationalised pharmaceutical industry in a statement issued today. SAMWU, shocked over the law suit, states that "workers are dropping dead like flies, simply because they cannot afford medicine to treat common health problems that is cheaply available to workers in many other developing countries," and asks the Government to address the "growing health crisis". The price of medicines in South Africa are amongst the highest in the world and are rising dramatically every year. It is clear to SAMWU that the pharmaceutical companies are a law unto themselves. "The aim of the Medicines Act is simply to lower the exorbitant cost of medicines in order to bring South Africa in line with other countries. The pharmaceutical companies will still make a profit! They therefore have no reason to oppose the amendments to the law," according to SAMWU.
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