Discovery's Huge Headache

20-39 Year Olds: Lack of Growth in Membership Seen by Scheme for Nearly a Decade

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Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) has a massive looming problem, one which will negatively affect medical inflation. Not only has scheme membership been broadly flat for nearly a decade, the number of lives covered by DHMS has declined by 73,000 over the past five years.

Discovery Health's growth over the decade has come from taking on the administration of restricted schemes such as Bankmed (in 2016) and Sasolmed (last year), and from non-scheme products such as gap cover.

The problem with this lack of growth—which is largely structural in nature given the economy that is barely growing—is that the average age of lives covered by the scheme has jumped significantly over the past decade and a half.