• G C Solanki, J E Cornell, E Daviaud, and S Fawcus.
• Senior Specialist Scientist, Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa; Honorary Research Associate, Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa; Principal Consultant, NMG Consultants and Actuaries, Cape Town, South Africa. geetesh.solanki@mrc.ac.za.
• S. Afr. Med. J. 2020 Jul 29; 110 (8): 747-750.

AbstractBroader policy research and debate on the issues related to the planning of National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Africa (SA) need to be complemented by case studies to examine and understand the issues that will have to be dealt with at micro and macro levels. The objective of this article is to use caesarean section (CS) as a case study to examine the health systems challenges that NHI would need to address in order to ensure sustainability. The specific objectives are to: (i) provide an overview of the key clinical considerations related to CS; (ii) assess the CS rates in the SA public and private sectors; and (iii) use a health systems framework to examine the drivers of the differences between the public and private sectors and to identify the challenges that the proposed NHI would need to address on the road to implementation.

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