“With health insurance products booming in the country, medical schemes are no longer the most attractive option, at least based on price, with regulations tying their hands when trying to compete, said Principal Officer for Medshield”, Kevin Aron, in an interview with Business Talk (7 September 2026).
According to Aron younger people are joining cheaper health insurance products which are not regulated in the same way medical schemes are and don’t carry the same regulatory burden.
This booming sector offers cover at R500 a month, versus the most affordable medical scheme plans starting around R1,100 “if you’re lucky”.
Meanwhile, medical schemes have to abide by regulations preventing them from competing in this sector; for instance being forced to cover PMBs, which have a base coverage cost of around R1,000.
If a medical scheme has many older members, the claim burden is higher because older people have greater medical needs. This results in high annual increases in premiums.
“If people solely base their medical scheme on the cheapest option, they might find themselves in a situation where they need to claim and find that it isn’t covered by their plan,” said Aron