Insurance Group offers Outlook for African Healthcare Funds

March 1 - Alexander Forbes Insurance, in a statement issued on Friday, called for all sources of investment and technology to be mobilized to help Africa's struggling healthcare landscape.

The health actuary of Alexander Forbes, Bode Olajumoke, said that funing for healthcare on the African continent run the risk of becoming scarcer and scarcer and all must be done to see that this does not happen.

Alexander Forbes referred to South Africa's recognition that a public-private partnership in the health industry had potential to work, and could serve as a template for the rest of Africa's nations.

"South Africa's own National Health Insurance (NHI) debate is happening at an opportune and, hopefully, instructive time for the continent," said Olajumke.

The insurance group said that a nation could not move forward if its own people were not healthy and had their healthcare provided for.

"Given the scale of this task, the funding is required and the skill sets that need to be assembled, it is becoming obvious that all sources of investment, skills and technology, including those in the private sector, should be mobilized in the struggle to make Africa healthier," said the statement.

In the case of South Africa, a number of private healthcare providers have already pledged their commitment to assist the government in implementing a fair and workable National Health Insurance scheme.

"Discovery and Momentum have been particularly active in this regard," noted Olajumke.

He said that this type of collaborative effort is likely to revolutionized healthcare in South Africa and help identify how other nations on the continent can "foster public-private cooperation in the health care sector."

He noted the potential difficulties of public-private ventures but said: "While neither state nor the private sector will ever be fully satisfied with such a partnership a national health system should be recognized as a compromise in the interest of all."