Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:15:55.770Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Friendly Society to Compulsory Medical Aid Association

The History of Medical Aid Provision in South Africa’s Public Sector, 1905–1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Grietjie Verhoef
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The compulsory medical benefit scheme for white public servants in South Africa grew out of a friendly society founded in 1905. This development diverged from the experience of other members of the British Commonwealth, where universal health insurance schemes developed following the British example. The Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (CSMBA) addressed the needs of white public servants, leaving the non-white communities without any form of government-sponsored medical support, apart from health care provided at government hospitals. The CSMBA was a well-managed medical benefit association, but when it was appointed the compulsory medical benefit association for white public servants, government intervention affected the financial viability of the organization, despite the payment of a state subsidy.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 30 , Issue 4: The Persistence of the Health Insurance Dilemma , Winter 2006 , pp. 601 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2006 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abel-Smith, B. (1994) “The Beveridge Report: Its origins and outcomes,” in Hills, J., Ditch, J., and Innerster, H. G. (eds.) Beveridge and Social Security: An International Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon: 10–22.Google Scholar
Attenborough, R. (1997) “The Canadian health care system: Development, reform, and opportunities for nurses.” Journal of Obstetrics, Gynaecology, and Neonatal Nursing 26: 229–34.Google Scholar
Beito, D. T. (2000) From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890–1967. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Bryden, L. (1994) “A new world? Two hundred years of public health in Australia and New Zealand,” in Porter, D. (ed.) The History of Public Health and the Modern State. Amsterdam: Rodopi: 313–34.Google Scholar
Cape Archives (1904) Friendly Societies. KAB:AG/1550-1582:1904. Cape Town.Google Scholar
Cape Archives (1906) Legislation on Friendly Societies. KAB:T/995-3493:1906. Cape Town.Google Scholar
Carnegie Commission (1932) Die armblanke vraagstuk in Suid-Afrika [The Poor White Problem in South Africa]: Report of the Carnegie Commission. 5 vols. Stellenbosch: Pro Ecclesia.Google Scholar
Cassel, J. (1994) “Public health in Canada,” in Porter, D. (ed.) The History of Public Health and the Modern State. Amsterdam: Rodopi: 276–312.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (CSMBA) (1905) Draft Rules, February 20. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (1905–68) Circulars. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (1905–80a) Annual Reports of the Committee to the Annual General Meeting. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (1905–80b) Committee Reports to the Annual General Meeting. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (1905–80c) Committee Reports to the Special Annual General Meeting. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (1905–80d) Minutes of Committee Meetings. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (1905–80e) Minutes of the Annual General Meeting. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (1905–80f) Minutes of the Special Annual General Meeting. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Civil Servants’ Medical Benefit Association (1945–66) Annual Financial Statements. Medihelp Archives, Pretoria.Google Scholar
De Voe, J., and Short, S. D. (2003) “A shift in the historical trajectory of medical dominance: The case of Medibank and the Australian doctors’ lobby.” Social Science and Medicine 57: 343–53.Google Scholar
Gosden, P. H.J. H. (1973) Self-Help: Voluntary Associations in Nineteenth-Century Britain. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Hamlin, C. (1994) “State medicine in Great Britain,” in Porter, D. (ed.) The History of Public Health and the Modern State. Amsterdam: Rodopi: 132–64.Google Scholar
Harrison, D. (1993) “The National Health Services Commission, 1942–1944: Its origins and outcome.” South African Medical Journal 83: 679–84.Google Scholar
Headlam, C., ed. (1909) The Milner Papers. Vol. 2, South Africa, 1899–1905. London: Cassel.Google Scholar
Hopkins, E. (1996) Working Class Self-Help in Nineteenth-Century England: Responses to Industrialization. London: University College London Press.Google Scholar
Jeeves, A. (2005) “Delivering primary care in impoverished urban and rural communities: The Institute of Family and Community Health in the 1940s,” in Dubow, S. and Jeeves, A. (eds.) South Africa’s 1940s: Worlds of Possibilities. Cape Town: Double Storey: 87–107.Google Scholar
Laidler, P., and Gelfand, M. (1971) South Africa: Its Medical History, 1652–1989. Cape Town: Struik.Google Scholar
Marks, S. (1997) “South Africa’s early experiment in social medicine: Its pioneers and politics.” American Journal of Public Health 87: 452–59.Google Scholar
Marks, S., and Anderson, N. (1992) “Industrialization, rural health, and the 1944 National Health Services Commission in South Africa,” in Feierman, S. and Janzen, J. M. (eds.) The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press: 131–61.Google Scholar
Marks, S., and Trapido, S. (1981) “Lord Milner and the South African state,” in Bonner, P. (ed.) Working Papers in Southern African Studies, vol. 2. Johannesburg: Ravan: 52–91.Google Scholar
National Archives of South Africa (NASA) (1905a) Circular, Lieutenant Governor, February 2. Pretoria.Google Scholar
National Archives of South Africa (NASA) (1905b) Letter, Lieutenant Governor to Assistant Colonial Secretary, February 27. Pretoria.Google Scholar
National Archives of South Africa (NASA) (1906) Letter, Colonial Secretary to Assistant Lieutenant Governor, February 20. Pretoria.Google Scholar
Phillips, H. (1990) “The origin of the Public Health Act of 1919.” South African Medical Journal 77: 531–32.Google Scholar
Phillips, H. (1993) “The 1945 Gluckman Report and the establishment of South Africa’s health centers.” American Journal of Public Health 83: 1037–39.Google Scholar
Phillips, H. (2005) “The Grassy Park Health Centre: A peri-urban Pholela?” in Dubow, S. and Jeeves, A. (eds.) South Africa’s 1940s: Worlds of Possibilities. Cape Town: Double Storey: 108–28.Google Scholar
Porter, D., ed. (1994) The History of Public Health and the Modern State. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Public Record Office (PRO) (1935) Letter, Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs-Dominions Office to South African High Commissioner, September 27. PRO:DO/35/424/6:11987/46. London.Google Scholar
Public Record Office (PRO) (1937) Public Health Including Medical Services: Provision by the Government to Non-officials, December 18. PRO:CO/5424/25. London.Google Scholar
Public Record Office (PRO) (1938a) Letter, Colonial Office to Sir T. Stanton, January 11. PRO:CP/525/176/1:44207. London.Google Scholar
Public Record Office (PRO) (1938b) Report of the Colonial Advisory Medical Committee, September 20. PRO:CO/525/176/1:44207. London.Google Scholar
Public Record Office (PRO) (1938c) Report of the Native Welfare Commission for the Year Ended December 31, 1937. PRO:CO/525/176/7. London.Google Scholar
Public Record Office (PRO) (1950) Report [of the] Treasurer [for] Nigeria, February 14. PRO:CO/583/313/7. London.Google Scholar
Public Servant (1905–80) Pretoria. Google Scholar
Riley, J. C. (1997) Sick, Not Dead: The Health of British Workingmen during the Mortality Decline. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Sagner, A. (2000) “Ageing and social policy in South Africa: Historical perspectives with particular reference to the Eastern Cape.” Journal of Southern African Studies 26: 523–53.Google Scholar
Seekings, J. (2000) “The origins of social citizenship in pre-apartheid South Africa.” South African Journal of Philosophy 19: 386–404.Google Scholar
Seekings, J. (2005) “Visions, hopes, and views about the future: The radical moment of South African welfare reform,” in Dubow, S. and Jeeves, A. (eds.) South Africa’s 1940s: Worlds of Possibilities. Cape Town: Double Storey: 44–63.Google Scholar
Transvaal Medical Journal (Johannesburg) (1905) December 1.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1927) First Report of the Commission on Old Age Pensions and National Insurance. 21/27. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1928) Second Report of the Commission on Old Age Pensions and National Insurance. 50/28. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1929) Third Report of the Commission on Old Age Pensions and National Insurance. 26/29. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1943) Social Services and Their Cost: A Summary of the Social Security Scheme Recommended by the Social Security Committee and of the Report No. 2 Entitled “Social Security, Services and the National Income,” of the Social and Economic Planning Council. 8485. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1944a) Report of the Committee Appointed by the Public Service Commission to Enquire into a Medical Benefit Scheme for the Union Public Service. 13/3/44. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1944b) Report of the National Health Services Commission on the Provision of Organized National Health Service for All Sections of the People of the Union of South Africa, 1942-1944. 30/44. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1944c) Report of the Social Security Committee. 14/44. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1950) Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Facilities at Hospitals for Medical and Dental Training. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Union Government of South Africa (UG) (1959) Report of the Public Service Commission on the Civil Service Medical Benefit Association. 2/1/59. Pretoria: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Verhoef, G. (2001) “Informal financial service institutions for survival: African women and stokvels in urban South Africa.” Enterprise and Society 2: 259–96.Google Scholar
Weingarden, C. R., and Murray, J. (2004) “Effects of early health insurance programs on European mortality and fertility trends.” Social Science and Medicine 58: 1822–36.Google Scholar
Worsfold, W. B. (1912) The Reconstruction of the New Colonies under Lord Milner, vol. 1. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Yach, D, and Tollman, S. M. (1993) “Public health initiatives in South Africa in the 1940s and 1950s: Lessons for a post-apartheid era.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 83. 1043–50Google Scholar