BusinessLive reports that worsening claims ratios and climbing healthcare costs have resulted in SA’s medical aid schemes facing a multimillion-rand deficit, the Council of Medical Schemes (CMS) 2016 annual report showed last week.
The council regulates 82 schemes, made up of 22 open schemes and 60 restricted schemes. The report revealed that nearly 62% of the restricted schemes had a R1.435bn deficit, while 78.3% of the open schemes incurred a total deficit of R955.7m, up from R539.6m in 2015. The net healthcare result for all medical schemes combined reflected a deficit of R2.391bn in 2016. Even though membership numbers grew slightly by 0.78%, the deepening deficits were mainly due to the increased claims ratios of all schemes rising from 91.4% in 2015, to 92.1% in 2016. Schemes were able to collect R163.9bn in contributions as at end-December 2016, but this was undercut by a gross healthcare expenditure of R151.2bn.
- Read this report by Michelle Gumede in full at BusinessLive
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