Do South Africans getting HIV/AIDS treatment pay for their care?
Not in the public sector — well, there is a nominal service charge, but from what I gather, few people pay it. In the private sector, people pay, usually via medical insurance; it is very expensive. We have an under-resourced public sector unable to meet demand and an inefficient, over-serviced expensive private sector. Fewer than 20 percent of South Africans have medical insurance. In the 2005 Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC) Household Survey, 70 percent of respondents said the public sector is their usual source of medical care. Q: TAC has been very critical about the government’s slowness to provide ARVs. Has that improved? Is the government still holding back? It is improving — slowly. It’s also patchy. Some places, like Khayelitsha, are doing well. In many parts of the country, the rollout is pitiful, such as Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. These areas are less urban and less wealthy. But they also lack a democratic culture, giving rise to provincial govern
