{"id":786457,"date":"2024-08-12T11:40:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T09:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=786457"},"modified":"2024-08-13T08:51:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T06:51:21","slug":"medical-aid-price-pain-in-south-africa-with-worse-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/786457\/medical-aid-price-pain-in-south-africa-with-worse-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical aid price pain in South Africa – with worse to come"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Medical aid contributions have skyrocketed over the past few years\u2014at a rate double inflation\u2014and the industry warns that members should expect more of the same for 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at historical data on medical aid prices, a member of a Discovery Classic Comprehensive plan in 2017 would have been paying R4,506 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, contributions for the same plan (ignoring the changes to benefits and other details of the plans over the years) now cost a member R8,381 a month\u2014an 86% increase, compared to the 40% rate of inflation over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This higher-than-inflation rise in medical aid prices is seen almost across the board, across schemes and companies, averaging around 70%, with very few exceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tables below outline how medical aid prices have changed since the peak increase in 2017 versus headline inflation averaging 40% over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plan<\/th>Scheme<\/th>2017
Contribution<\/th>		2024
Contribution<\/th>		Change<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
BonComprehensive<\/td>Bonitas<\/td>R5,254<\/td>R9,853<\/td>88%<\/td><\/tr>
Classic Comprehensive<\/td>Discovery<\/td>R4,506<\/td>R8,381<\/td>86%<\/td><\/tr>
Executive<\/td>Discovery<\/td>R5,544<\/td>R10,303<\/td>86%<\/td><\/tr>
BonClassic<\/td>Bonitas<\/td>R3,648<\/td>R6,732<\/td>85%<\/td><\/tr>
BonComplete<\/td>Bonitas<\/td>R2,923<\/td>R5,359<\/td>83%<\/td><\/tr>
Beat<\/td>BestMed<\/td>R3,618<\/td>R6,509<\/td>80%<\/td><\/tr>
Classic Priority<\/td>Discovery<\/td>R2,968<\/td>R5,272<\/td>78%<\/td><\/tr>
Classic Core<\/td>Discovery<\/td>R1,918<\/td>R3,322<\/td>73%<\/td><\/tr>
Classic Smart<\/td>Discovery<\/td>R1,535<\/td>R2,627<\/td>71%<\/td><\/tr>
Pace<\/td>BestMed<\/td>R6,096<\/td>R10,343<\/td>70%<\/td><\/tr>
Standard<\/td>Bonitas<\/td>R2,998<\/td>R4,922<\/td>64%<\/td><\/tr>
Classic Saver<\/td>Discovery<\/td>R2,577<\/td>R4,182<\/td>62%<\/td><\/tr>
BonSave<\/td>Bonitas<\/td>R2,135<\/td>R3,447<\/td>61%<\/td><\/tr>
BonEssential<\/td>Bonitas<\/td>R1,473<\/td>R2,287<\/td>55%<\/td><\/tr>
Primary<\/td>Bonitas<\/td>R1,924<\/td>R2,792<\/td>45%<\/td><\/tr>
BonFit<\/td>Bonitas<\/td>R1,789<\/td>R2,295<\/td>28%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: BusinessTech coverage 1<\/a>, 2<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While many schemes would argue that their contributions reflect the benefits they receive, some within in the industry have noted the opposite – that plans have become tighter, benefits more restricted and more red tape thrown in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), medical aid increases are not tied to headline inflation but medical inflation, often a few percentage points higher than average inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the industry has always taken a position that medical inflation is around two to three percentage points above CPI – not double CPI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CMS’s data shows that contribution increases have consistently been much higher than average CPI over the last 15 years, except for the oddities introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic, where contribution hikes were deferred (resulting in split increases).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 2023, however, increases were again above inflation, and in 2024 they are expected to once again return to historical trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Worse to come<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at Momentum Health Solutions\u2019 virtual Healthcare Insights Summit in July, Momentum Health marketing officer Damian McHugh said medical aid members in South Africa should expect hefty above-inflation price hikes again in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McHugh noted that medical fund demands are rising, and attempts to contain contribution increases are causing medical schemes to incur additional costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has resulted in medical schemes reducing or tightening benefits to keep increases lower than necessary\u2014something which may spill over to 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CMS urged medical schemes to keep tariff hikes for 2025 as close to inflation as possible \u2013 recommending a 4.4% increase, plus \u201creasonable utilisation estimates\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In previous years, the council said its historical data points to reasonable utilisation estimates adding around 3.5% to the hikes, while private medical inflation generally exceeds CPI by 2% to 3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the \u201creasonable\u201d increase for 2025 should be anywhere between 6.4% and 7.9%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While medical schemes managed to keep their “weighted average” increases in line with the CMS’ recommendations for 2024, on a plan-by-plan basis, many members saw their contributions hiked far above the guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Discovery<\/strong><\/a>, the biggest medical aid scheme in the country, for example, increases ranged from 3% to 13%, with the biggest increases seen in the \u201cpremium\u201d segment, which offers more comprehensive coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Momentum<\/strong><\/a> announced a weighted increase of 9.6% for 2024 \u2013 the same as BestMed<\/strong><\/a>, which had the same average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonitas\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>had the lowest weighted average at 6.9%, but even its \u201ccomprehensive\u201d cover could not escape the premium \u2018tax\u2019, seeing a 9.6% surge in prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something members should expect again in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: 5 biggest medical aids in South Africa \u2013 what they offer and how much they cost right now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Medical aid prices have almost doubled in South Africa since 2017 – with another big increase coming in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":772373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-786457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786457","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=786457"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":786585,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786457\/revisions\/786585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}