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Zimbabweans to pay 85 percent more for health
ZimOnline
July 05, 2006

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6RE33S?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe

BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe medical aid societies and clinics on Tuesday hiked fees by between 85 and 100 percent putting the cost of health care beyond the reach of many Zimbabweans already battling a six-year old economic recession.

Florence Kazhanje, the chairperson of the National Association of Medical Aid Societies (NAMAS), the largest association of medical aid groups, blamed the latest fee hike on Zimbabwe's hyper-inflationary environment.

"The 85 percent increase is for Medical Aid Societies for their subscriptions while the 100 percent is for consultations at clinics and hospitals. The increases were made in view of Zimbabwe's ever-rising inflation levels which are constantly affecting our viability," Kazhanje said.

The latest increases come barely three months after private hospitals and clinics effected a 240 percent hike in consultation fees. The fee hike will see individuals on medical aid forking out an average of Z$4 million every month, up from about $2.5 million.

People who spoke to ZimOnline yesterday said the latest increase has effectively pushed them out of health care schemes.

Mimosa Ndebele, who is on a private health care scheme with a local medical aid group in Zimbabwe's second biggest city of Bulawayo, expressed shock over the fee increase saying she has no option but to quit the scheme.

"With the low salaries that most of us are getting, it's a complete disaster," she said.

The majority of workers in Zimbabwe are getting salaries between $15 and $20 million every month, way below the $49 million that the consumer rights body, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average family of five needs every month to survive.

Zimbabwe is in the throes of a severe economic crisis that has manifested itself in record inflation of nearly 1 200 percent. The country's health delivery system, which was one of the best in southern Africa in the early 80s, has virtually collapsed as part of the general collapse of the country's economy.

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