{"id":178199,"date":"2017-06-08T19:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-06-08T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=178199"},"modified":"2017-06-08T16:55:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T14:55:01","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-medical-aid-schemes-in-south-africa-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/178199\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-medical-aid-schemes-in-south-africa-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything you need to know about medical aid schemes in South Africa right now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New data released by Stats SA in its latest General Household Survey for 2016, shows how families use medical aid schemes in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The report revealed that the majority of people are not covered by any type of medical aid scheme &#8211;\u00a0 only 17.4% belonged to a medical aid scheme in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>And with half of South Africa\u2019s health professionals catering exclusively to only 17% of the population on medical aid schemes, the entire setup is a crime against humanity and should be abolished, president of the\u00a0SA Health Professions Council (SAHPC),\u00a0Dr Kgosi Letlape, said recently.<\/p>\n<p>Government is currently looking for a way forward on its proposed NHI programme, following the release of the NHI white paper in 2015 which said that medical aid schemes would not exist in their &#8220;current form&#8221; when NHI was rolled out.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/173415\/south-africas-cheapest-medical-aid-schemes-and-hospital-plans-in-2017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa\u2019s cheapest medical aid schemes and hospital plans in 2017<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>It said that government policy would see all medical aid schemes merged\u00a0 into a single state-run medical aid plan.<\/p>\n<p>However, last month <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/thetimes\/2017\/05\/11\/Climbdown-on-medical-aids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TimesLive<\/a> reported that the Department of Health appeared to make a u-turn on that plan, calling on private companies to work with government instead.<\/p>\n<p>According to StatsSA, between 2002 and 2016, the percentage of individuals covered by a medical aid scheme increased from 15.9% to 17.4%.<\/p>\n<p>During this time, the number of individuals who were covered by a medical aid scheme increased from 7.3 million to 9.5 million persons.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/MediacalAid-e1496932197711.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-178205\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/MediacalAid-e1496932197711.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"353\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Individuals were more likely to be covered by medical aid schemes in Gauteng and Western Cape.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/MediacalAid2-e1496932539469.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-178209\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/MediacalAid2-e1496932539469.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"332\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Percentage of individuals who are members of medical aid schemes by population group in 2016:<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/MedicalAid4-e1496932514990.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-178207\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/MedicalAid4-e1496932514990.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"274\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are other facts about medical aids and healthcare in South Africa:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>The percentage of individuals in metros that were members of medical aid schemes (25.9%) exceeds the national average of 17.4%.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>About seven in every ten (71.4%) households reported that they went to public clinics and hospitals as their first point of access when household members fell ill or got injured.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>By comparison, a quarter (27%) of households indicated that they would go to private doctors, private clinics or hospitals.<\/li>\n<li>Most households (92.6%) went to the nearest facility of its kind. Of those that preferred to travel further to access\u00a0 health\u00a0 facilities,\u00a0 19.6%\u00a0 presented\u00a0 long\u00a0 waiting\u00a0 periods as a reason for securing services beyond their normal catchment areas.<\/li>\n<li>The study found that 81.7% of households that attended public health -care facilities were either very satisfied or satisfied with the service they received compared to 97.5% of households that attended private health &#8211; care\u00a0 facilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/155131\/medical-aids-are-a-crime-against-humanity-sahpc-president\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Medical aids are a \u201ccrime against humanity\u201d: SAHPC president<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New data released by Stats SA in its latest General Household Survey for 2016, shows how families use medical aid schemes in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":178201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-178199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178199"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178223,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178199\/revisions\/178223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}