Health Care in South Africa

The South African health care system is embedded in a background of racial subordination and sexual violence against girls and women and of hierarchical male authority from youth to adulthood. Low wages, unemployment, urban overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, malnutrition, crime, and violence have contributed to economic and health inequality. With more health-insured whites than blacks and the proportion of gross national product spent on health care slowly increasing, two-thirds of health expenditures have been consumed by the private sector at a time when the cost of health insurance has risen to more than 3 times the rate of the consumer price index.