Discovery Health Medical Scheme continued to dominate South Africa’s medical insurance industry with almost 1m more beneficiaries than the government employees’ juggernaut medical aid, the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS). Fin24 reports that this is according to the latest statistics released by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), the regulator of the medical schemes industry.
CMS released its annual report for 2016-2017 last week, which provides a comprehensive report on the status of the private medical schemes industry in South Africa.
The report stated that there are 82 schemes with a total subscription of 8.879m members as at 31 December 2016. This figure included a total of 22 open schemes and 60 restricted schemes.
The 10 biggest schemes are by number of average beneficiaries are: Discovery Health Medical Scheme – 2.707m; Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) – 1.801m; Bonitas Medical Fund – 676,785; South African Police Service Medical Scheme (Polmed) – 497,129; Momentum Health – 257,371; Bankmed Restricted – 214,305; Bestmed Medical Scheme – 200,400; Medihelp – 195,858; Medshield Medical Scheme – 153,415; and LA-Health Medical Scheme: 147,778.
[link url="http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Health/revealed-sas-biggest-medical-schemes-20171013"]Fin24 report[/link]