Medical aid members have been reminded not to miss their schemes’ deadlines to change benefit options for 2027, this as most of them announce increases that are almost double the recommendations from the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), reports Business Tech.
For some schemes, the cut-off date was this past Saturday (Bonitas, 31 October), and Hagop Jaghlassian, CEO of Curemed Health and Wealth Consultants, warned that members should not assume they have until the end of December to make changes, as each scheme sets its own administrative deadline, and missing this could leave members on their existing benefit option for another year.
“Each scheme sets its own cut-off, which is separate from 1 January, which is only the date on which a new option takes effect,” he said.
Bonitas had the earliest deadline for members paid through the Public Service Salary System (Persal), who had to submit their change-of-option forms by 31 October, while other Bonitas members have until 30 November.
Fedhealth and Momentum Health have a deadline of 30 November; Medihelp members paid through Persal face the same deadline, while other Medihelp members have until 15 December.
Profmed’s deadline is 15 December, while KeyHealth’s standing option-change form requires submissions before 15 December. Bestmed requires forms before 31 December, and Medshield’s scheme closing date is also 31 December.
However, Curemed has set an earlier client deadline of 15 December for both Bestmed and Medshield, which Jaghlassian said allows clients time to check the paperwork and submit it before the schemes close.
Discovery Health Medical Scheme had not published a verifiable deadline for 2027 as of 28 October. However, Jaghlassian noted that Curemed was working towards a 15 December deadline for its Discovery clients.
He has suggested members compare options before deciding, a recommendation echoed by the CMS, which has encouraged members to finalise decisions by late November or early December, and in light of the recent contribution increases announced by schemes for 2027.
Members of five schemes will pay between 7.35% and 8.7% more on average from January, roughly twice the 3.8% to which the CMS asked schemes to anchor their increases, reports SA Health News.
In its guidance for 2027, the CMS asked schemes to anchor contribution increases and cost assumptions at 3.8%, in line with the South African Reserve Bank’s projected inflation, and to justify anything higher.
The anchor excludes what the council calls “reasonable utilisation estimates”: the extra cost of members using more healthcare from year to year.
A scheme that only prices for inflation, and not for people going to hospital more often, is pricing a year the council itself says is incomplete.
The Board of Healthcare Funders said the council has not defined what “reasonable utilisation” means. It argues that increases close to 3.8% would need deeper reforms, including collective tariff negotiation with providers and changes to prescribed minimum benefits and low-cost benefit options. Business Day reported that challenge on 23 September.
The BHF is not saying schemes should ignore inflation. It is saying a 3.8% ceiling, with utilisation left undefined, is not a number schemes can hit on the current rules.
Based on past council data showing utilisation adding about 3.5 percentage points a year, BusinessTech estimated that a “reasonable” increase for 2027 would fall between 5.8% and 7.3%. All five schemes sit above that range. Bestmed, at 7.35%, is the closest, and it is still just outside it.
The pattern is not new. For 2026, the council recommended 3.3%. The industry-weighted average increase it later recorded was about 8.10%, against consumer inflation of 3.0%.
Guidance near inflation, and approved increases well above it, is what members have already lived through once. The 2027 announcements sit in that same gap.
The increase for Bonitas members is highest at 8.7%, followed by Discovery Health Medical Scheme at 8.2%, Momentum Medical Scheme at 7.9%, Medihelp at 7.5% and Bestmed at 7.35%. Discovery and Bestmed say their 2027 changes remain subject to approval by the council.
Fedhealth announced its increases on 15 September, with increases of 8% on myFED and 8.4% on flexiFED Savvy. It said 60% of members would face an average weighted increase of 8.9%, while increases on some other options reach 13.5%, according to Curemed’s calculations.
KeyHealth announced a weighted contribution increase of 8.5%, while Medshield’s weighted average increase is 7.9%. Bonitas announced an average increase of 8.7% across its plans.
The Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), the largest restricted scheme, had not published a 2027 contribution figure in any source this newsroom could find. In December 2025, it said a corrective increase of 9.8% would be needed in 2027 and again in 2028. That is not a 2027 announcement.
In June 2026, the council turned down the scheme’s request to cut its 2026 increase from 9.5% to 7.5%, News24 reported on 30 June. GEMS members do not yet have a 2027 number to plan against.
The increases vary between plans, which means members should compare the contributions, benefits, and limits of their current option with the alternatives before making a decision, Curamed suggested.
Members should also consider whether their existing cover still meets their healthcare needs, rather than choosing a plan based on price alone.
BusinessTech article – Deadline for medical aid members in South Africa (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
‘Gap cover is breaking medical schemes’ – SA actuaries
BHF calls for urgent reforms to tackle medical aid hikes