Medical aid fight looms for Covid-19 vaccine

As South Africa received its first batch of one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from India on Monday, the country’s medical aid umbrella bodies reassured members their scheme contributions were safe and would be utilised for their
benefit in the roll-out of the Covid-19 jabs.

The pledge by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), Board of Healthcare Funders, the Health Funders Association and nonaffiliated medical schemes who have established the Funders Working Group (FWG) came as Profmed chief executive Craig Comrie said schemes could not bear the brunt of vaccination funding.

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Comrie expressed concern over private medical schemes being required “to fund double the cost of their members’ vaccinations, by also funding the dose of an uninsured South African for every member they vaccinate”.

He argued that a better funding model was through a voluntary process, similar to the Solidarity Fund.

Said Comrie: “This is an overwhelming obligation and expectation that creates huge questions around why the department of health would target scheme reserves in this way.

“There are many other businesses with reserves which have not been approached with the same magnitude of responsibility.

“We haven’t yet agreed to this arrangement and will be reluctant to do so without a clear undertaking of how
medical scheme members will get guaranteed access to vaccines sooner rather than later.

“While we are looking to see how we can help the funding processes for the public sector, we cannot volunteer our funds as these belong to our members.”

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Reassuring that medical scheme member contributions were safe, the FWG said the funds were safeguarded by stringent legislation through the Medical Schemes Act, which empowered trustees “to act in the best interests of members”.

“The CMS is coordinating this public-private sector collaboration aimed at ensuring that there is universal access to this vaccine in line with the country’s priorities and individual health needs,” he said.

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