Out of 55.5 million people, 40 million South Africans – among them the elderly with no income, children, the unemployed and unemployable – are solely dependent on the public healthcare system, says Netcare Limited director for strategy and health policy Melanie da Costa. Addressing the Forbes-Philips Future of Health Summit on the state of healthcare in South Africa yesterday, Da Costa said collaboration between the private and public health sector was key in addressing health disparities in the country where government sought to bring into the fold people who were not medically insured and unable to afford cover through the National Health Insurance (NHI). The solution, she said, lay in the “mandatory cover of the medically insured” to realise a R12.7 billion annual savings to the medical scheme. Read the full article here.