Medical aids to collude?
by
2008-04-03 08:00
Robert Beney, News24 User
There is very little that surprises me anymore.
Daily reading the news on how the people of South Africa are further burdened with increasing living costs and how the inept middle and senior management at various levels of industry, commerce and government continue to reap the benefits of excessive non-performance bonuses, is enough to drive one to seek out the miserable existence of those northern islands of our previous colonisers.
But a little Machiavellian move by the Board of Healthcare Funders must surely take the cake. For those who don't know who they are, I shall paraphrase. I think they are a greedy bunch of colluding lobbyists.
They of course describe themselves in much more flowery language as "... BHF is the representative organisation for 95% of medical schemes throughout South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana as well as Lesotho. As the industry representative body, the organisation relies on the membership of all medical schemes to ensure that it is able to lobby government and other organisations effectively and to influence policy where necessary on behalf of the entire industry."
Now all in all this is legitimate legal entity, however there are surely ethical issues involved, especially in the light of a press release they issued in March of this year titled: "Application for exemption from the provisions of the Competition Act - 14 March 2008".
For those of you who didn't get that, I'll explain it a little more clearly. The BHF has applied to be excluded from the provisions of the competitions act. Which in effect is them asking for permission to collude on price fixing your medical costs.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other
Now their argument in favour of this is to be able to better negotiate hospital and supplier costs. Frankly I don't believe that is a valid vehicle for deal with this issue, instead the solution should be government dealing out a few snotklaps to hospitals and suppliers for exorbitant pricing, not giving medical aids free rein to milking Joe Public.
I doubt very much that strengthening the BHF lobby will reduce the pricing of medical costs on the supplier side. The only effective mechanism for that is for government to regulate the suppliers.
Now I am very much a capitalist, with a slight nasty socialist streak in me. So I believe in free markets et al. But government needs to remember that in a capitalist society their primary function is to guard over the interests of the population that elected them, not to have wonderful blissful nights on satin sheet covered heart-shaped beds in the arms of commerce and industry.
What is even more shocking about this application is that we haven't heard peep out of the media regarding it. A press release given out in mid-March and not a word? This is big stuff boys and girls, where are our investigative journalists?
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