A unitary health service for South Africa.

Medicine throughout the world is facing many critical challenges. In South Africa these are exacerbated by the effects apartheid has had on the structure, funding, distribution and delivery of health care. The demographic, economic, political, ethical and management problems facing our health services and the arguments in favour of privatisation are briefly reviewed. The case against privatisation of health care is buttressed by moral, economic and sociological justification for developing a unitary national health service/insurance system. In a rapidly changing South Africa medical care could become the leading edge of an enlightened social policy, which may facilitate peaceful progress towards a better future for all in our country and sub-continent.