The challenges of health disparities in South Africa

The proposal for national health insurance (NHI) is part of a welcome resurgence in public discourse about poverty, health and access to health services in South Africa. Despite certain areas of progress in the country since 1994, disparities in wealth and health are among the widest in the world. In 2008, for example, 54% of South Africans had an income below $3/day. The top 10% of South Africans account for 58% of annual national personal income, while the balance of 70% received a mere 16.9%. The Gini co-efficient, a measure of income inequality, increased from 0.6 in 1995 to 0.679 in 2009.