The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on Nehawu to accompany its statement calling for the scrapping of medical aids with a declaration that all its senior managers have resigned from their own medical aids. Until it does this, nobody can be expected to take its latest assault on the private health sector seriously.

However, the DA believes that if Nehawu were truly concerned about South African health care, instead of making this call, it would be focusing on what is really wrong with public hospitals and clinics. Nobody benefits by an onslaught on one part of the health system that works relatively well.

While the ANC/Cosatu alliance blames inadequate funding for the poor performance of the health system, the reality is that many basic, affordable interventions are not being done. It is this that drives millions of South Africans to become members of medical aids, despite the cost.

The most recent District Health Barometer, released yesterday, shows, for example, that South Africa is failing in one of its primary objectives - reducing the rate at which babies born to HIV-positive mothers become themselves infected with HIV. The Millennium Development Goals commit us to reaching 80% of all children born to HIV-infected mothers. However, according to the Barometer, we are currently reaching less than 60% of babies, and the number of babies being reached was "much lower than expected".

Furthermore, the effect of the implementation of Nehawu's demand would be the complete collapse of the public system under the additional demand. Last year, the Development Bank of South Africa called for an initiative to shift many more people onto private medical aids, arguing that the pressure on public sector was already unsustainable.

Statement issued by Mike Waters MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of health, July 8 2009

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