Private healthcare financing in South Africa has undergone several
regulatory reforms, the most recent of which saw the enactment of the
Medical Schemes Act No. 131 of 1998. The stated reforms, most
especially open enrolment and community rating, were touted by the
government as necessary to address the undesirable effects of adverse
selection. However, it was never questioned whether in fact adverse
selection is a feature of the South African medical schemes landscape.
Adverse selection is found to be absent. Thus, government’s supposition
that adverse selection, as a consequence of the deregulation that took place
during the late 1980s and early 1990s, is responsible for the deterioration in
medical scheme coverage for the elderly, unhealthy or poor is fallacious.
Since the ostensible reason for the current legislation does not stand up to
scrutiny, regulatory capture is offered as the plausible alternative
explanation for the promulgation of the current legislation governing
medical schemes business.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/11171 |
| Date | 25 January 2012 |
| Creators | Hutcheson, Hugh-David |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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