Medical fund membership swells

Cape Town - South Africa now has almost 8 million members of medical funds, and schemes offering the lower premiums, in particular, are experiencing growth.

The doors of medical schemes were thrown open for many South Africans after the new Medical Schemes Act was passed in 1999.

According to research by Daisy Ditshoene and Paul Bosch, senior analysts at the Council for Medical Schemes, the number of members has since swelled by about 1.6m.

The new act put paid to the risk basis on which funds had previously admitted members. Funds were now prohibited from vetting members according to criteria such as age, health, status and race.

But there was another period between 2001 and 2004 when people resigned from medical schemes because of the economic downturn.

Ditshoene and Bosch, however, say that since 2005 and 2007 there was significant growth as the economy recovered.

Their research clearly shows that membership numbers are linked to labour statistics. So far there is no evidence that the current recession has seen an exodus.

In recent years there has been a particular increase in members taking the inexpensive options. Members on these options, according to Ditshoene and Bosch, have risen from 45.9% in 2005 to 50% in 2008.

Medical scheme growth has also been significantly stimulated by the introduction of the government scheme, Gems, which assists members with strong subsidies.

Gems provides healthcare cover to more than a million people, almost 2% of the population. More than half the Gems members did not previously have access to employer subsidies enabling them to join a fund.

- Sake24.com

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