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Absa stimulates corporate wellness at Healthcare Consultant Seminar

07 September 2007 Absa

"Across the globe, there is a search for better health and more sustainable methodologies to provide access to affordable, quality healthcare," says Louis Botha, Managing Director at Absa Healthcare Consultants.

Botha was addressing the 11th annual Absa Healthcare Consultants Seminar, bringing together some of the key industry role-players in an attempt to stimulate constructive discussion on the journey towards affordable and sustainable healthcare in South Africa. This includes a discussion on the responsibility of the corporate sector in ensuring the wellness of their employees.

"One country's health challenge could be how to move to the ultimate level of wellness where society would reflect a homogeneous profile of healthy mind, spirit, emotion and body," says Botha.

"Another country's health challenge could be how to provide more people with basic primary health such as access to clean running water, immunisation, sanitation and nutrition."

The ability to make progress for each country is subject to its research and development capability, its ability to afford and its capacity to implement and to manage.

"In the context of a social health insurance model and the demarcation rules, medical schemes are the anchor health insurance product for most. Choosing a medical scheme and the right option became an art and requires creative analysis supported by a sound knowledge of aspects such as level of care, access to care, quality of care, the underlying costs drivers, service delivery, governance and overall value for money," concludes Botha.

Designed as a panel discussion, this year's seminar was launched on 4 September at Gallagher Estate in Midrand and will continue in Cape Town (6 Sep), Durban (11 Sep) and Bloemfontein (13 Sep). It gives delegates the opportunity to interact with speakers to challenge their views on the roles of various stakeholders in finding the best healthcare strategies for South Africa.

The speakers include Dr Humphrey Zokufa, Managing Director at the Board of Healthcare Funders of SA, Hein van Eck, Product Development Manager at Mediclinic, Dr Johan Oelofse, Healthcare Director at SpesNet and Dr Johnathan Broomberg, General Manager Strategic Risk Management at Discovery.

Detailed below is Louis Botha, Managing Director at Absa Healthcare Consultants welcome address

AHCC 2007 SEMINAR WELCOME ADDRESS

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.  It is indeed a pleasure to welcome all of you to this 11th annual health care seminar hosted by Absa Health Care Consultants.

Without the support of you, our customers, business associates, speakers, sponsors, co-workers, colleagues and organisers, an event like this would simply not be possible.  Our sincere appreciation to each and every one of you for the time and the effort you took to be here and to help make this day another memorable occasion.

Please allow me a few more words as an introduction to an eventful programme for the rest of the day.

Across the globe there is a search for better health and more sustainable methodologies to provide access to affordable, quality health care.  This covers a broad range such as:

* various countries have entered the space of searching for solutions how to create a cooler planet.

* many countries are introducing methodologies such as triple bottom line reporting which requires business communities to take more responsibility and to be more transparent with respect to the impact of business on the environment and the health and safety of their staff and communities.

* the United Nations' Millennium Development Plans and Objectives are focusing on narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor, an important objective for sustainable social security benefits.  This focus is also on the provision of better access to basic primary health such as clean running water, sanitation and nutrition.

* leading surveys recently published by the likes of McKinsey and PWC highlight the lack of a preventative approach towards more sustainable health.  Worldwide there is a chronic under funding of prevention as a basis for sustainable health and safety.  Whilst this is the case we should accept a continuation of the existing focus which can be described as reactive, curative, very expensive and not sustainable.

It should be acceptable to say the world is not a homogeneous place.  It consists of developed countries, developing countries and underdeveloped countries.  Although health is a common term used by all, each countrys problems, potential solutions and ability to make progress is unique.  One countrys health challenge could be how to move to the ultimate level of wellness where society would reflect a homogeneous profile of healthy mind, spirit, emotion and body. The next countrys health challenge is how to provide more people with basic primary health such as access to clean running water, immunisation, sanitation and nutrition.  The ability to make progress for each is subject to its research and development capability, its ability to afford and its capacity to implement and to manage.

Our own country's health care system is in a process of transformation, from a previously under-regulated and predominantly private health sector model to a tight and somewhat overregulated social health insurance system, with the ultimate objective of a national health system.  The underlying philosophy is based on the principles of social solidarity, deeply rooted in the Constitution and the National Health Act.

South Africa as a country is unique in itself and although it is described as a developing country, it consists of First World and Third World components and does not have a homogeneous society nor a homogeneous infrastructure.  One can almost say that because of our diversity, we basically have all the problems and challenges of the rest of the world on our own plate, a tough challenge for a small economy with such a big population.  Some South Africans are aspiring to achieve the ultimate level of wellness whereas a very large number of South Africans main aspiration is to have access to very basic primary health.

Although significant progress can be acknowledged in certain areas of health delivery in South Africa, other areas such as providing access to prepaid health care services to more of the working population is still in dire need of attention.  It appears as if the move towards a social health system has reached a plateau.  Many elements of a social health insurance model have already been introduced but some very important remaining ones such as a risk equalisation fund, a funding mechanism, which was envisaged to be a payroll levy and mandatory cover, are outstanding and providing to be problematic to implement.  There are several stumbling blocks that are potentially contributing to a "lag" in the progress of Social Health Insurance.  A few of these are worth considering:

* is it possible that the model, although a solution with merit, is not complementary to our current economic and socio-economic challenges and limitations, as reflected by the high unemployment rate and the big income gap between the rich and the poor?
* is the economy maybe supported by too small a number of taxpayers, and will it remain to be the case until such time as a larger middle class can be established?
* is the cost of labour not already too expensive and making it problematic for the business community to compete internationally?
* is the Department of Health not maybe too ambitious in terms of its prescribed minimum benefits and basic benefits package?
* what part does the fact that employers over the last decade have cut back drastically on their medical scheme subsidies and especially their post-retirement liabilities play with respect to medical scheme contributions?
* is it possible that new generation medical scheme benefit structures have partly eroded the primary care base, much needed for a more preventative approach?
* isn't the lack of personal and work safety placing too much of a burden on the private and public health facilities, already hamstrung in the provision of proper disease-related primary and tertiary care?
* isn't the HIV/Aids pandemic absorbing too much of the existing capacity?
* how much of our available resources are being absorbed by the large number of illegal immigrants and visitors from neighbouring countries?
* how critical is the shortage of skilled workers and the continued loss of more qualified health workers?
* what role does it play the fact that critical monopolies amongst certain health care providers have developed before competition rules were instituted?
* shouldn't the idea to regulate and govern the private and the public sector by the same laws maybe be revised?  Is there not a risk that generalisation in a very diverse environment will produce nothing better than average results?
* aren't the demarcation rules limiting more affordable, alternative solutions?
* is it wise to force people into a mandatory system which they might not be able to afford after retirement, whilst a social security system offering a comparable level of services does not exist?

Whilst the saga between Government and the private health sector still continues and is probably far from over, employers, who are in need of being competitive locally and abroad, are competing for scarce skills and resources and can only achieve their strategic objectives in an environment of sustainable high productivity which is dependent on robust health and safety. There is a clear trend internationally and locally of employers embarking on corporate wellness strategies in order to prevent burnout, disease and trauma that may hamstring sustainable results.  This trend is also encouraged by investors and strengthened by KING 2 and triple bottom line reporting as mentioned earlier.  Achieving success through corporate wellness requires a cultural shift at corporate level and behavioural change at employee level.  With buy in from both the corporate and its employees as well as healthy collaboration between all, a significant ROI can be expected.

In the context of a social health insurance model and the demarcation rules, medical schemes are the anchor health insurance products for most of us.  Choosing a medical scheme and the right option became an art and requires creative analyses supported by a sound knowledge of aspects such as level of care, access to care, quality of care, the underlying cost drivers, service delivery, governance and overall value for money.

Our health is as precious as it is to be alive, it belongs to us and the responsibility to look after it is ours.  Being happy with oneself and ones circumstances in life goes a long way towards achieving and maintaining a state of good health.

With these few introductory words, Ladies and Gentlemen, I again wish to thank you for your presence and your continued support of ABSA.I trust you will enjoy the rest of the programme and that you will be able to take away some food for thought and be inspired to take your own health and your organisations health care strategies to new heights.
I thank you.
Louis Botha

 

 

 


 

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