Elder Care and Private Health Insurance in South Africa: The Pathos of Race-Class.

Academic Article

Abstract

  • This article shows how age as a category of dependency upends popular consciousness about race and class within postcolonial health systems. White individuals working within South Africa's private health insurance (medical aid) market and allied fields face a conundrum with respect to elder care. Some policies accommodate older adults' needs, but being older is costly and long-term residential care is excluded. Critically, these workers' position as middle- and upper-class enables them to pity older, poorer whites and blacks who more often use a dysfunctional public health sector, yet the elder care gap and other limitations reveal that these workers' own class position is also tenuous.
  • Authors

    Status

    Publication Date

  • 2018
  • Keywords

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Anthropology, Medical
  • Female
  • Health Services for the Aged
  • Humans
  • Insurance, Health
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Racial Groups
  • Socioeconomic Factors
  • South Africa
  • class
  • dependency
  • health insurance
  • older adults
  • race
  • Digital Object Identifier (doi)

    Pubmed Id

  • 29257908
  • Start Page

  • 311
  • End Page

  • 326
  • Volume

  • 37
  • Issue

  • 4