{"id":666995,"date":"2023-02-22T13:01:31","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T11:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=666995"},"modified":"2023-02-22T13:03:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T11:03:53","slug":"discovery-announces-price-hikes-for-2023-heres-what-you-will-be-paying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/666995\/discovery-announces-price-hikes-for-2023-heres-what-you-will-be-paying\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery announces price hikes for 2023 – here’s what you will be paying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) has announced price hikes for 2023, with new contribution increases taking effect on 1 April.<\/p>\n

Scheme members, including those on the Keycare, Smart, Core and Saver Plans, will see a 7.9% increase. <\/strong>Members on the Priority, Comprehensive and Executive plans will have a 9.9% increase.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After deferring price hikes for the first three months, Discovery members will now effectively pay 2023 contributions for only nine months of the year.<\/p>\n

Dr Ryan Noach, the CEO of Discovery Health, said: “85% of DHMS members will experience a 7.9% increase in their contributions, while the remaining 15% of members will experience a 9.9% contribution increase.”<\/p>\n

The weighted average contribution increase for 2023 for the Scheme will be 8.2%, he added.<\/p>\n

In January, Discovery said that the adjustments would be decided on in careful alignment with medical inflation.<\/p>\n

In real terms, taking into account the delayed increase in 2023, members will pay 6.2% more than December 2022 rates on average during 2023, the group said.<\/p>\n

These are the prices from 1 April 2023 (for the main member):<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Plan<\/th>\nJanuary 2023<\/th>\nApril 2023<\/th>\nChange<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Executive<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Executive Plan<\/td>\nR8 298<\/td>\nR9 122<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Comprehensive<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Comprehensive<\/td>\nR6 810<\/td>\nR7 484<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Delta Comprehensive<\/td>\nR6 133<\/td>\nR6 742<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essential Comprehensive<\/td>\nR5 723<\/td>\nR6 292<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essential Delta Comprehensive<\/td>\nR5 155<\/td>\nR5 667<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Smart Comprehensive<\/td>\nR4 949<\/td>\nR5 441<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Priority<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Priority<\/td>\nR4 362<\/td>\nR4 795<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essential Priority<\/td>\nR3 749<\/td>\nR4 121<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saver<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Saver<\/td>\nR3 762<\/td>\nR4 060<\/td>\n+9.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Delta Saver<\/td>\nR3 006<\/td>\nR3 244<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essential Saver<\/td>\nR2 990<\/td>\nR3 227<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essential Delta Saver<\/td>\nR2 385<\/td>\nR2 574<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coastal Saver<\/td>\nR2 983<\/td>\nR3 220<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Smart<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Smart<\/td>\nR2 235<\/td>\nR2 412<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essential Smart<\/td>\nR1 600<\/td>\nR1 727<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Core<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Core<\/td>\nR2 800<\/td>\nR3 022<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classic Delta Core<\/td>\nR2 241<\/td>\nR2 419<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essential Core<\/td>\nR2 406<\/td>\nR2 597<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Essential Delta Core<\/td>\nR1 923<\/td>\nR2 075<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coastal Core<\/td>\nR2 226<\/td>\nR2 403<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Plus 0 – 9,450<\/td>\nR1 380*<\/td>\nR1 489<\/td>\n+7.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Plus 9,450 – 15,250<\/td>\nR1 897*<\/td>\nR2 047<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Plus 15,521 +<\/td>\nR2 801*<\/td>\nR3 023<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Core 0 – 9,450<\/td>\nR1 084*<\/td>\nR1 170<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Core 9,450 – 15,250<\/td>\nR1 352*<\/td>\nR1 459<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Core 15,251 +<\/td>\nR2 068*<\/td>\nR2 232<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Start 0 – 9,450<\/td>\nR1 044*<\/td>\nR1 127<\/td>\n+8.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Start 9,450 – 15,250<\/td>\nR1 758*<\/td>\nR1 897<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Start 15,521 +<\/td>\nR2 737*<\/td>\nR2 954<\/td>\n+7.2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Start Regional 0 – 9,450<\/td>\nR930*<\/td>\nR1 003<\/td>\n+7.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Start Regional 9,450 – 15,250<\/td>\nR1 405*<\/td>\nR1 516<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KeyCare Start Regional 15,521 +<\/td>\nR2 190*<\/td>\nR2 363<\/td>\n+7.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

* prices for 2022 KeyCare ranges<\/em><\/p>\n

According to Noach, the difference in increases across plans takes into account the higher disease burden on the Priority, Comprehensive and Executive plans – reflected through higher hospital admissions, oncology claims and chronic illness costs.<\/p>\n

Contribution increases for DHMS across the past three years have ensured that contributions remain in check with medical inflation, Discovery said.<\/p>\n

Deferring increases is used as a ‘shock absorber’ to reduce the effective annual increases for members.<\/p>\n

“This strategy allows the Scheme to maintain its long-term sustainability, avoid future price shocks and benefit cuts, and address affordability for members,” said the group.<\/p>\n

Membership in the health scheme has grown by 47,500 beneficiaries since January 2021.<\/p>\n

Prior to the announcement, Noach said that consumer price inflation and the overall outlook for healthcare use remained volatile.<\/p>\n

New projects<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 13 February, Discovery Health announced its partnership with Clicks and Auto & General Insurance to bring a new health insurance product to consumers – Flexicare.<\/p>\n

Flexicare provides unlimited consultations with GPs, medicine, dentistry, eye care, x-rays, flu vaccines, maternity care, health checks, blood tests, procedures in GP rooms, HIV care, and private ambulance services for a monthly fee of R435.<\/p>\n

Discovery said that Flexicare is not a medical aid scheme but an insurance product that is not intended to substitute medical scheme membership.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Discovery launches new affordable private health insurance package<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are the new contributions for Discovery Health members for 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":667065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[4883,26],"class_list":["post-666995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-discovery","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666995","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=666995"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667069,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666995\/revisions\/667069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}