INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION
Medical scheme body presses on with consolidation draft plan
Industry consolidation is in line with government policy on National Health Insurance
The Council for Medical Schemes expects to finalise a draft consultative framework on consolidating the medical schemes industry within two months, acting CEO Sipho Kabane says. Industry consolidation is in line with government policy on National Health Insurance (NHI), but is likely to run into fierce opposition from industry players and civil servants. The framework would contain proposals for consolidating government-funded schemes for public servants, reducing the number of the scheme’s benefit options and consolidating schemes that had less than the statutory requirement of 6,000 members, Kabane said. The notion of scrapping schemes with fewer than 6,000 members was first flighted by Kabane in 2017 shortly after Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi released the government’s White Paper on NHI. His proposal ran into immediate criticism from industry experts, who warned that such a move posed a risk to the 230,000 people who belonged to such schemes. All but three of the 31 medical s...
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