{"id":817640,"date":"2025-03-19T11:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=817640"},"modified":"2025-03-19T11:48:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:48:58","slug":"bad-news-for-anyone-with-medical-aid-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/817640\/bad-news-for-anyone-with-medical-aid-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad news for anyone with medical aid in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The latest inflation data from Stats SAs shows that medical aid prices in the country have skyrocketed over the last year, with no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Annual consumer price inflation was 3.2% in February, remaining unchanged from January. The monthly change in the consumer price index (CPI) was 0.9% in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite being at the lower end of its 3% to 6% target range, the Reserve Bank is unlikely to cut interest rates tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stats SA said that recreation, sport and culture, food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB), alcoholic beverages and tobacco, and communication recorded higher annual rates in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inflation cooled for several products, such as personal care and miscellaneous services, health, restaurants and accommodation, furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance, and transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Stats SA surveyed medical insurance (medical aid premiums) and health services in February, highlighting the increased healthcare cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Medical aid premiums increased by 10.5% this year, up from an already high 10.3% increase in 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Medical services rose by 6.1% compared with a 5.0% rise last year. General practitioner\u2019s fees increased by 6.6% and dentist prices were up by 5.2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s largest medical aid schemes announced massive price increases in 2025. Discovery, the nation&#8217;s largest medical aid scheme, increased by a weighted average of 9.3% for 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Discovery&#8217;s increase was the smallest of the four largest private healthcare players, with increases ranging from 9.3% to 10.8%: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>MediHelp: 10.8%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bonitas: 10.2%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Momentum: 9.4%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Discovery: 9.3%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Discovery CEO Adrian Gore recently said more young people are putting off medical aid due to the high costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, he warned that the increased age profile of schemes leads to a disproportionate number of chronic illness claims, driving up medical aid prices above inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-45.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"643\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-45-1024x643.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-817660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-45-1024x643.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-45-300x189.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-45-768x483.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-45-1536x965.png 1536w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-45-2048x1287.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Other increases <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Stats SA said that the annual rate for food &amp; NAB reached a four-month peak in February, rising to 2.8% from 2.3% in January. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fruit &amp; nuts, vegetables, hot beverages, seafood, meat and cereals recorded higher rates, while cold beverages; milk, dairy &amp; eggs; oils &amp; fats; and sugar, confectionery &amp; desserts saw slower increases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Worryingly, maize meal inflation reached a 17-month high and samp a 19-month high. The price index for maize meal increased by an annual 10.6% and samp by 18.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stats SA said that these increases are driven by inflationary pressures in the production chain. The latest PPI showed that annual farm inflation for maize was 64.7%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maize meal is an important and relatively cheap source of food for many low-income households, with increases having a disproportionate impact on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On average, consumer prices for meat were stable in February, with the monthly and annual rate change remaining at 0%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, inflation for hot beverages continues to accelerate, with the annual price change hitting 14.6% in February, up from 13.7% in January. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instant coffee recorded an annual rate of 19.0%, the highest in half a year. The rate for black tea was 12,4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The graphs below show food and beverage products that registered notable price changes in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside of food, fuel prices jumped between January and February, taking the annual rate from -4.5% to 3.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the price for inland 95-octane petrol increased from R21,59 in January to R22.41 in February, the price is still lower than it was a year ago (R23.24).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-42.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"548\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-42-1024x548.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-817653\" style=\"width:844px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-42-1024x548.png 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-42-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-42-768x411.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-42-1536x823.png 1536w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-42-2048x1097.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stats SA&#8217;s latest data shows that medical aid premiums have jumped dramatically over the last year, adding further strain to cash-strapped South Africans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":798581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[12344,4883,12352,6652,1809],"class_list":["post-817640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-bonitas","tag-discovery","tag-medihelp","tag-momentum","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817640","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817640"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817675,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817640\/revisions\/817675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}