Towards equity in medical, private health care

Recently, looking for a bed for my ailing younger sister, I was told, at Bokamoso, that one without medical insurance, had to cough up P300, 000 upfront for a COVID-19 patient. Sidilega, demanded P30, 000 a day, while GPH were literally closed. The P300, 000 covered only 10 days.

Look, I’d have robbed a bank to keep her alive, but there was another problem: there were no beds. I have a university qualification, and that has afforded me a modest life. But I was rudely reminded that the trapping of comparative privilege brought about a university degree, mean nothing so long as the socio-economic foundations upon which the entire country rests, is fundamentally flawed. No one is safe, until everyone is safe. I lost her. As a general proposition, people aren’t poor, because they are lazy. We are thrust into and innately unfair world, from positions of inherited, and sometimes enforced, socio-economic inequalities.

A young girl must deal with the reality of having been raped in their infancy before they can muster the courage to face the world. A young boy must emerge from child labour to find his place in the sun. Someone must overcome challenges that come with social stigma, albinism, and tribal prejudice, before they can compete for limited opportunities in a rigged economic system that perpetuates class inequities. Often, we look to someone, who has achieved mozdes success, and parade them as an example of what we could all be, if we tried harder. Fair enough, one who rises to be a general where they were born a private deserves commendation and generous applause. What we overlook, is that effort does not always translate to upward mobility, and financial success. There are those who have put in twice as much, with little or no success. Merit is not a guarantee of success, even though it is as a general proposition, a function of it.

Editor's Comment
Something ought to be done about deadly A3 Road

The accident which happened near Marapong village comes after yet another horrific accident which claimed 16 lives in July last year near Hubona. These stats don’t include other accidents where fatalities were not as many as the two.While several factors may have contributed to the two accidents and many others, many believe the biggest with that road is the bad state that the road is in. Unconfirmed reports in the most recent accident state...

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