The High Cost of Health Care

Growing up, I was never in need of much health care. I’ve never broken a bone, been hospitalized or prescribed medication for a long-term illness. I’m also fortunate to be covered under my father’s company-subsidized health insurance plan. I guess you could say, I’ve never truly experienced the staggering cost of health care in this country until only recently. Today, I got my last vaccination in preparation for my trip to Africa, and I can already tell, I’m going to be eating ramen for the rest of the year. 

While South Africa is one of the more developed countries in terms of health care, there are a multitude of diseases – some long eradicated here in the United States – that plague the region. The big one, of course, is HIV/AIDS. South Africa has the highest number of HIV-infected people in the world, with a staggering 5+ million infected people. In a country of 47 million people, it’s an alarming percentage. A cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe and the northern regions of South Africa, Limpopo particularly, has affected thousands of people. A malaria zone extends from Kruger National Park in northern South Africa all the way up to the Sahara Desert, engulfing most of Africa. In Mozambique, yellow fever isn’t just a game ender in the once-popular Oregon Trail computer game – it’s an everyday risk you live with.