On 22 July 2011, SECTION27 made a written submission to the National Treasury on its proposal for the first phase of the conversion of medical deductions to medical tax credits.
The recently published “i-Base and TAG 2011 Pipeline Report makes clear, medically, the prospect for people with HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) to live long and healthy lives – and in the cases of HCV and TB, to be cured rapidly with safe, effective, oral combination therapy – have never been better.
We are a range of organisations who campaign for the right to health, and/or who provide health care services to poor people who depend on the public health sector. We fully support the efforts of the government to improve health care services. We also support unions and their members who are at the front line of health care provision, and who justifiably try and draw attention to the difficult conditions in which most health care workers operate.
On the 27th of May 2011 the Centre for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), a Ugandan NGO, and the families of two mothers who died in government hospitals in 2009 in Uganda approached the Ugandan Constitutional Court alleging the women’s deaths were caused as a direct result of Uganda’s failing healthcare system. The Constitutional Court will begin its hearing of this landmark case this Thursday on July 7th 2011.
It is critical that you speak up for these women. Raise your voices in support of the right to health in Uganda, distribute this widely. Please send messages of support to CEHURD.
E-mail info@cehurd.org or phone +256 414 532283
On the 8th of June 2011 the Kwazulu-Natal High Court handed down judgment in the case of Langalakhe Ncengokwakhe Njoko v Minister of Safety and Security. In the judgment the court accepted evidence of Professor Francois Venter, President of the HIV/AIDS Clinicians Society, on the life expectancy of people living with HIV who are on anti-retroviral treatment.
On 7 June 2011 Mark Heywood and Mandisa Dlamini (the daughter of Gugu Dlamini) jointly delivered the Nkosi Johnson Memorial lecture at the opening of the 5th South African AIDS Conference. They drew attention to the crisis facing young people in South Africa and the need to link HIV prevention and care to the struggle for the right to a basic education in South Africa.
With the vitally important UN High Level meeting on AIDS only one week away, the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) has issued an important resolution setting out the country’s position in the negotiations for a renewed commitment to HIV and TB.
On 8–10 June, 2011, key stakeholders from all over the world will gather in New York to review progress of the global response to HIV/AIDS and to plan the way forward. This forum has the potential to reinvigorate the commitment to HIV/AIDS nationally and internationally.
In light of this, on 20 May, SECTION27, TAC, Médecins Sans Frontières, the World AIDS Campaign and the AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa sent a letter to the Director General for Health calling on the South African government to take the lead in setting ambitious and measurable targets, and encouraging similar commitments from other UN member states.
SECTION27 is becoming increasingly aware that some medical schemes try to narrow the scope of the benefit options they offer when it comes to processing claims. This may be done, for example, by mischaracterising claims so that they fall outside benefit options, improperly imposing late joiner penalties and waiting periods, or failing to cover prescribed minimum benefits as required by law. Such practices are unlawful and violate the rights of scheme members who are forced to incur out-of-pocket medical expenses in circumstances where they are covered by their benefit options. In some cases, they may also be prevented from accessing necessary health care.
Our client, IE, has been HIV positive for 20 years and participated in early trials of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines before the conventional treatment regimens became available. As a result of his exposure to various ARV medicines and regimens over an extended period, IE began to develop fatty growths on his back and neck and was diagnosed with ARV-related lipodystrophy. On the recommendation of his physician, IE applied to Bonitas Medical Fund (Bonitas) for authorisation for the surgical removal of the fatty growths on his body.
Bonitas, however, refused to cover the medical procedure on the basis that it considered the procedure to be cosmetic surgery. There was no medical basis for this decision. Bonitas failed to consider all the relevant information before it and mischaracterised the claim as cosmetic in order to avoid its legal obligation to cover IE’s costs. Following SECTION27’s intervention on behalf of IE, the claim was authorised with retrospective effect and IE was reimbursed most of his out-of-pocket expenses.
Cabinet recently resolved to ask Parliament to take the necessary steps to enable South Africa to ratify a decision taken by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on intellectual property and access to medicines. At its meeting held on 16 March 2011, Cabinet decided to request Parliament to –
– ratify the WTO decision on the implementation of paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health; and
– deposit “an instrument of ratification … with the WTO.”
As organisations that are committed to ensuring universal access to essential medicines, as an integral part of the constitutional right to have access to health care services, TAC and SECTION27 call on Parliament not to ratify the decision. In this press statement we explain why we make this call.
SECTION27 hosts groundbreaking Southern African Regional Activist Dialogue on a proposed Framework Convention on the Right to Health (FCGH)
1. Report on Southern African Dialogue
2. Programme
3. Participants list
4. Discussion Document
SECTION27 to host groundbreaking Southern African Regional Activist Dialogue on Strengthening Campaigns for the Right to Health and why we need a UN Framework Convention on the Right to Health.
This year a million people will die of HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa. Hundreds of thousands more will die of easily preventable diseases. Infant and maternal mortality remains intolerably high across the region. This situation demands an enhanced and urgent response to health, yet health systems are under enormous strain, many governments are lukewarm in their response to health and international donor assistance is flagging or going into reverse, particularly the commitment to fund universal access to HIV treatment.