Bad news for anyone with medical aid in South Africa

Smiggles said:
It's getting unsustainable with 10% increases YoY across the board yet our salaries only increase by 4%. Something's gotta give.
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When I started working medical aid cost me about R800 pm, that same plan is now almost R5000. It really isn't sustainable anymore; in the last 6 years I haven't had an increase of more than 4% yet everything else is going up 10%+
 
VooDooC said:
When I started working medical aid cost me about R800 pm, that same plan is now almost R5000. It really isn't sustainable anymore; in the last 6 years I haven't had an increase of more than 4% yet everything else is going up 10%+
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Not just that, I was on Keycare when I first started, it covered everything a young person needed: doctors, dental, hospital etc etc. I paid around R400pm of which only R50 as the company I worked for then covered bulk.

Now, plans have more ways not to pay for medical treatment than ever before and anything normal is out of pocket or savings. If you want to go back to the Keycare plans, they are based on salaries and you actually pay MORE for them than the other plans.

My biggest bugbear, who decided that teeth are non pmb or not necessary? Even state will happily pull but not replace. I firmly believe that needs to change.
 
Smiggles said:
It's getting unsustainable with 10% increases YoY across the board yet our salaries only increase by 4%. Something's gotta give.
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100%, every year we are just getting poorer and poorer while some knob who earns hundreds of thousands and gets massive bonuses approved "above inflation" increases for top performers at 6% or 7%
 
Kosmik said:
Not just that, I was on Keycare when I first started, it covered everything a young person needed: doctors, dental, hospital etc etc. I paid around R400pm of which only R50 as the company I worked for then covered bulk.

Now, plans have more ways not to pay for medical treatment than ever before and anything normal is out of pocket or savings. If you want to go back to the Keycare plans, they are based on salaries and you actually pay MORE for them than the other plans.

My biggest bugbear, who decided that teeth are non pmb or not necessary? Even state will happily pull but not replace. I firmly believe that needs to change.
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Discovery has become like the US-insurance companies. They'll find every reason not to pay for something. Maybe other healthcare insurers here too are doing the same i don't know. But i'm finding them getting stricter and stricter the last few years.
 
neoprema said:
Discovery has become like the US-insurance companies. They'll find every reason not to pay for something. Maybe other healthcare insurers here too are doing the same i don't know. But i'm finding them getting stricter and stricter the last few years.
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Stricter is not quite right, more like less and less is covered or less effective.
 
My medical aid is increasing as of the 1st of October with an increase of 4.5% My income increased by only 3.4%. Lose-lose situation.
 
VooDooC said:
When I started working medical aid cost me about R800 pm, that same plan is now almost R5000. It really isn't sustainable anymore; in the last 6 years I haven't had an increase of more than 4% yet everything else is going up 10%+
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It is going to collapse.

Earlier in the year I was listening to Jeremy Maggs and he was talking to someone from the industry, and the problem schemes are facing is younger people are not opting for medical aid or are dropping out of them because of the rising costs. This is leaving medical schemes top heavy and unsustainable long-term in that the people who need it the most - older demographics - do not contribute enough in terms of raw membership numbers.
 
Yea its been bad news for a while. Paying R6k for two healthy people in their 30's just because I'm too sh*t scared of government hospitals is criminal. Lately I've been feeling like I have less and less to rub together at the end of the month. Considered downgrading a bunch of times but murphy's law always tells me that sh*t will hit the fan if I do.
 
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Kyle15 said:
Yea its been bad news for a while. Paying R6k for two healthy people in their 30's just because I'm too sh*t scared of government hospitals is criminal. Lately I've been feeling like I have less and less to rub together at the end of the month. Considered downgrading a bunch of times but murphy's law always tells me that sh*t will hit the fan if I do.
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I'm in a similar situation, only difference is I have 4 dependents on my plan. I'm deep in the *hit.
 
They've been doing this for years now. Increase fees/premiums by the highest amount allowed by law, and then reduce benefits to reduce payouts.

Then you need to pay most docs up front anyway as they don't want to wait until Discovery settles them. And wade through statements and reconcile codes until you just give up and don't bother anymore.
 
vigras rojara said:
They've been doing this for years now. Increase fees/premiums by the highest amount allowed by law, and then reduce benefits to reduce payouts.

Then you need to pay most docs up front anyway as they don't want to wait until Discovery settles them. And wade through statements and reconcile codes until you just give up and don't bother anymore.
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Lol it's crazy basically paying half my bond on medical aid to go to the specialist and be told that my plan is a glorified hospital plan I'll have to pay out of pocket. Bloody depressing state of affairs.
 
Kyle15 said:
Lol it's crazy basically paying half my bond on medical aid to go to the specialist and be told that my plan is a glorified hospital plan I'll have to pay out of pocket. Bloody depressing state of affairs.
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Yeah, and if you had the medical savings portion you're paying for it directly anyway.☹️

I remember years ago when I first went onto Discovery, some silly broker telling me with regards to the medical savings portion that "your money remains your money".

I thought no, how amazingly generous of you...
 
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