No increases for members of Discovery Health
More than 1.3-million Discovery medical scheme main members will not face a contribution increase for the first six months of 2021 after the medical scheme generated huge surpluses during the coronavirus pandemic, when members avoided using hospitals and doctors. Ryan Noach, the CEO of the scheme’s administrator, Discovery Health, said on Wednesday it would pass on this surplus to members. “We anticipate a return of nonCovid health-care demand to pre-Covid levels by the middle of 2021,” Noach said.
More than 1.3-million Discovery medical scheme main members will not face a contribution increase for the first six months of 2021 after the medical scheme generated surpluses.
With the coronavirus pandemic, members were paying premiums each month but not using hospitals and doctors, leaving the money to accumulate in the scheme.
Discovery Health has seen a drop in people accessing health care as nonemergency operations were delayed to keep hospitals empty for Covid-19. Many people feared accessing health care during the national lockdown introduced to curb coronavirus infections.
Discovery Health Medical Scheme pays for health care for 2.7-million people and has just over 1.3-million main members who pay monthly fees.
Medical aid premiums increase by about 10% a year, taking into account increased use and expenditure on health care, the cost of newtreatments, and consumer price inflation.
The scheme’s administrator, Discovery Health, said on Wednesday that it had accumulated more than the legally required 25% of income it had to keep in reserves.
Discovery Health CEO Ryan Noach said it would pass on this surplus to members for the first six months of the year.
Discovery said in September it had seen 42% fewer diabetes screening tests conducted from April to June than in that period in 2019. It had also seen a 44% reduction in breast cancer diagnoses compared with the matching period in 2019 in all the schemes it administers.
On Tuesday, Netcare, SA’s third-largest hospital group, announced it had experienced a 50% reduction in operations from April to August.
However, the consequences of people delaying medical treatment could also result in costlier outcomes. Late diagnosis of diseases such as cancer could require more advanced treatment.
“We anticipate a return of non-Covid health-care demand to pre-Covid levels by the middle of 2021 and we also expect the demand for healthcare funding to be higher in the second half of next year,” Noach said. He also said there could be higher costs as delaying care often led to long-term health complications.
Contributions for the Discovery Medical Scheme would increase in the middle of next year, and would be announced in the second quarter of 2021.
Discovery Health predicted it would see an increase of an average 5.9%, taking into account medical inflation and consumer price inflation.
Health economist Alex van den Heever said that if members felt that savings were not passed on to them they would have been able to challenge any planned premium increases by complaining to the Council for Medical Schemes.
While the short-term winners were medical aid members, medical providers such as hospitals and doctors had earned less in 2020. This might have led to job losses at medical practices employing staff such as receptionists and nurses.
WE ANTICIPATE A RETURN OF NON-COVID HEALTH-CARE DEMAND TO PRE-COVID LEVELS BY THE MIDDLE OF 2021