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South Africa’s healthcare under threat 55Inequitable distribution of resourcesThe South African government is concerned by what it views as aninequitable distribution of health-care funding and resourcesbetween the private and government sectors. Officials claim thatthe private health sector consumes more than half the total healthexpenditure yet provides care for less than 20 per cent of the population.The validity of these generally quoted numbers for thesplit between government and private health-care provision wasearlier shown to be questionable yet, disturbingly, the figures arepersistently quoted in government policy statements. According tothe Minister of Health, the private health sector spent R43-billionon 6.9 million people in the 2003/2004 financial year while publicspending was R33.2-billion for 37.9 million people. 11 Anyone whois not a member of a medical scheme is by this logic automaticallyconsidered to be dependent on public sector health care, whetheror not they use the services. Basing policy proposals on this flawedlogic is intended to justify government intervention. The implicationis that, to obtain an equitable distribution of resources, moneyspent on private patients must be redirected to the governmenthealth system.There are several grounds for questioning both the logic behindthe “imbalance of resources argument” and any proposals for “rectification.”If we analyse the argument carefully, we see that theofficials are saying that some members of the population spend alot more of their own money on their own health care than thegovernment, utilising taxpayers’ money, spends on people who areunable to purchase health care. Compare this to a statement that“some members of the population spend a lot more of their ownmoney on their own food and clothing than the government, utilisingtaxpayers’ money, spends on people who are unable topurchase clothes and food”. There is an undoubted food andclothing “imbalance of resources,” but the government does notfeel compelled to increase the regulation of private-sectorproviders of these essential commodities, limit the expansion oftheir production facilities, and require them to obtain official