SA can ill-afford not helping sick

We are not legal and medical experts – and we await a final decision on the case from those people – but we cannot understand why the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) is trying to stop Discovery Health and Netcare Plus from selling innovative “pre-paid” vouchers for medical treatment.

According to Discovery, the first offering will be a R300 voucher for a general practitioner (GP), including the medicines dispensed by the doctor.

This is considerably less than the private rates being charged by many GPs.

So, Discovery is correct in its assertion that the vouchers system could make quality medical care more affordable for more people.

According to the CMS, though, Discovery Health and Netcare Plus are “conducting the business of a medical scheme”, seemingly because the vouchers are considered as some form of medical insurance.

Dr Ryan Noach, CEO of Discovery Health, claims the company believes “there is no insurance component to this product” and that it “took steps to ensure the structure is fully compliant with relevant legislation”.

One of the biggest arguments by the government in support of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme is that private healthcare has become unaffordable.

Therefore, clamping down on innovations like this is counterproductive.

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