{"id":842754,"date":"2025-11-11T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=842754"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:37:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T11:37:58","slug":"storm-brewing-over-medical-aid-tax-credits-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/budget-speech\/842754\/storm-brewing-over-medical-aid-tax-credits-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm brewing over medical aid tax credits in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) is looking for clarity on the government\u2019s plan for medical aid tax credits, with fears that they will be removed to fund the NHI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will deliver the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) on Wednesday, 12 November 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BHF has called for clarity on the National Treasury\u2019s plans to phase out medical tax credits, adding that this would result in significant health coverage gaps for millions of middle- and low-income individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after comments made by Deputy Director-General Nicholas Crisp that the Department of Health was in conversation with the Treasury to phase out the rebate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The money ‘saved’ by not paying out the credit would then be used to fund National Health Insurance (NHI).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has always been a part of the NHI funding plan, but until recently, timelines and intent were not forthcoming from any government officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BHF wrote to Treasury Director-General Duncan Pieterse in late October requesting more information on these discussions, but has yet to receive a response.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BHF said it is concernced about a Department of Health’s recent presentation to parliament, which reveals the plan to eliminate tax credits for all income groups by 2029.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would be before the NHI becomes fully operational, despite the highly-contested NHI Bill being signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BHF\u2019s own commissioned research shows that removing medical aid tax credits for lower-income members could make membership unaffordable for between \u202f430,000 \u202fand\u202f 690,000 members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will force many to downgrade their cover, remove dependants or exit the system entirely, which would place extra burden on an already overstretched public healthcare sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReform cannot mean removing existing protection for scheme beneficiaries, of which 67% come from previously disadvantaged groups, before an alternative is ready,\u201d said Dr Mothudi, Managing Director of the BHF. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny change to the tax credit system must be aligned to the readiness of the NHI and implemented in a way that preserves affordability for those who are already shouldering a portion of their own healthcare costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopes for the budget<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Mothudi said that Godongwana should use the MTBPS to clearly state what is happening with the rebate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MD also hopes that the minister will provide full transparency on the funding pathways for NHI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BHF, as well as many other private healthcare providers, support the objective of universal health coverage (UHC) but believe in a more phased, transparent, and inclusive process.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA sustainable path to UHC depends on leveraging both public and private sector strengths – not weakening either. Fiscal realism is essential,\u201d said Mothudi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BHF hopes that the National Treasury will ensure that South Africa\u2019s fiscal and health financing strategies protect affordability, expand access, and maintain system sustainability.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hopeful that the government\u2019s decisions do not deepen inequality and erode confidence in the country\u2019s healthcare future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NHI remains one of South Africa\u2019s most contentious issues, with the new system aiming to dominate and dismantle the majority of South Africa\u2019s healthcare funding options.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long-term plan for the NHI is to replace medical aid schemes and prevent private funding for any services covered by the scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medical schemes will only be allowed to provide cover for specialist or niche services not under the NHI umbrella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there has been no indication from government what the NHI will actually cover, nor how much it will cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No costing has been done, and only a vague timeline for the rollout has been given, with the department pointing to a 10-15 year window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the questions surrounding the funding of the NHI, the current legislation is also facing several legal challenges, including from the BHF, over its constitutionality. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Board of Healthcare Funders is hoping that Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana will provide clarity on the state’s plan for medical aid tax credits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":817248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13716],"tags":[19306,3796,24075],"class_list":["post-842754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget-speech","tag-department-of-health","tag-national-treasury","tag-the-board-of-healthcare-funders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842754","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=842754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842783,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842754\/revisions\/842783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}