The cheapest and most expensive medical aids in South Africa in 2017
The latest GTC Medical Aid Survey for 2017 has been released, which compares local medical aid schemes on cost to members across various levels of cover.
According to GTC, medical aids are complicated schemes, and comparing them is an almost impossible task; however it has developed a review process that compares schemes across specific categories, rather than on specific services offered.
For its 2017 review, GTC screened 23 medical aids (22 open and 1 closed scheme) offering 144 plans.
The rankings in the GTC Medical Aid Survey are based on the concept of a total cost or a risk rating for each medical aid plan.
This risk rating is derived from a risk premium, which represents the premium paid monthly minus the allocation to what is known as the ‘savings’ or out-of-hospital account.
“This approach removes any differences in personal circumstances, priorities or behaviours that may influence an individual’ eventual healthcare costs,” the group said.
The savings have not totally been discarded, however, and have been included in a separate column in the tables below.
Comprehensive and hospital plans are slightly different, where the medical aids are ranked by their complete cost (assuming that costs for the year are all only at 100% of the medical aid rate).
The plan categories include:
- Entry Level (in and out-of-hospital benefits within very defined networks and formularies),
- Hospital Only (in-hospital cover only),
- Saver (out-of-hospital provided by benefits or savings account),
- Saver Plus (two separate savings accounts, separated by a self-payment gap) and
- Comprehensive (unlimited above threshold benefit)
The full report also includes core and student entry level schemes as well as traditional schemes.
These are the top and bottom 5 medical aids in each category, for a single member.
Schemes marked with [*] indicate they for state-only hospital cover. Salary-banded schemes (i.e. prices vary depending on a member’s specific income) show the salary band in parenthesis.
Entry-level – low-salary
| # | Plan | Complete Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Makoti Primary* | R239 |
| 2 | Momentum Ingwe* | R560 |
| 3 | Discovery KeyCare Access* | R644 |
| 4 | Momentum Ingwe | R701 |
| 5 | Fedhealth Blue Door Plus | R776 |
| 17 | Medihelp Necesse | R1 404 |
| 18 | CompCare Wellness NetworX | R1 614 |
| 19 | Momentum Access | R1 842 |
| 20 | Bonitas Primary | R1 924 |
| 21 | Hosmed Access | R2 124 |
Entry-level – mid-salary
| # | Plan | Complete Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Makoti Primary* | R530 |
| 2 | Momentum Ingwe* | R641 |
| 3 | Discovery KeyCare Access* | R859 |
| 4 | Suremed Explorer | R860 |
| 5 | Momentum Ingwe | R892 |
| 17 | CompCare Wellness NetworX | R1 614 |
| 18 | Medihelp Necesse | R1 656 |
| 19 | Momentum Access | R1 842 |
| 20 | Bonitas Primary | R1 924 |
| 21 | Hosmed Access | R2 124 |
Hospital plan
| # | Plan | Complete Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Profmed ProActive (R0 – R5 000) | R635 |
| 2 | Genesis Private Choice | R1 000 |
| 3 | Profmed ProActive (R5 001 – R9 000) | R1 049 |
| 4 | Discovery Essential Smart | R1 100 |
| 5 | BestMed Beat1 Network | R1 131 |
| 35 | Discovery Classic Core | R1 918 |
| 36 | Medshield MediCore | R1 926 |
| 37 | Momentum Custom | R2 059 |
| 38 | Bonitas Hospital Plus | R2 636 |
| 39 | Selfmed Med Elite | R4 406 |
Saver plan
| # | Plan | Risk Rating | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BestMed Beat2 Network | R1 161 | R2 856 |
| 2 | Topmed Active Saver | R1 270 | R2 904 |
| 3 | BestMed Beat2 | R1 290 | R3 168 |
| 4 | Commed Shina (R0 – R6 000) | R1 348 | R1 798 |
| 5 | Fedhealth Maxima EntrySaver | R1 376 | R3 168 |
| 44 | Bonitas BonClassic | R3 648 | R6 192 |
| 45 | KeyHealth Gold | R3 729 | R9 158 |
| 46 | Cape Medical Plan HealthPact Select | R4 698 | R3 600 |
| 47 | Profmed ProPinnacle | R6 007 | R16 000 |
| 48 | Momentum Summit | R7 637 | R22 300 |
Saver Plus plan
| # | Plan | Risk Rating | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medimed Medisave Standard (R0 – R8 500) | R495 | R13 980 |
| 2 | Medimed Medisave Standard (R8 501 – R13 000) | R570 | R14 280 |
| 3 | Medimed Medisave Standard (R13 001 – R17 000) | R788 | R15 150 |
| 4 | Medimed Medisave Standard (R17 001 +) | R923 | R15 690 |
| 5 | Discovery Essential Priority | R1 240 | R15 734 |
| 24 | BestMed Pace3 (R8 209 +) | R3 082 | R24 180 |
| 25 | CompCare Wellness Pinnacle | R3 269 | R24 713 |
| 26 | Spectramed Cobolt | R3 355 | R23 588 |
| 27 | BestMed Pace4 | R3 580 | R30 196 |
| 28 | Commed De Luxe | R4 715 | R13 050 |
Comprehensive
| # | Plan | Comlpete Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fedhealth Maxima Standard Elect | R1 899 |
| 2 | Fedhealth Maxima Standard | R2 486 |
| 3 | Momentum Extender | R2 799 |
| 4 | Discovery Essential Delta Comprehensive | R2 899 |
| 5 | Discovery Classic Delta Comprehensive | R3 045 |
| 16 | Discovery Executive | R4 158 |
| 17 | Bonitas BonComprehensive | R5 254 |
| 18 | KeyHealth Platinum | R6 036 |
| 19 | Fedhealth Maxima Plus | R6 369 |
| 20 | Fedhealth Ultimax | R8 736 |
A full, detailed breakdown of GTC’s rankings can be found in the full report.
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