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By Emma Rumney and Alexander Winning
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Days before coronavirus
vaccinations start in South Africa, medical schemes have still
not agreed how and to what extent they will contribute to the
cost of inoculations for people without insurance cover,
industry executives told Reuters.
South Africa is expecting its first 1 million doses of the
AstraZeneca vaccine to land on Monday and will start
immunising health workers from mid-February. The
country has been the hardest-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic on the
continent, with more than 1.4 million cases and over 43,000
deaths to date.
A top medical scheme administrator, Discovery Health
, said earlier this month that medical schemes, funds
that pool member contributions to cover healthcare costs, had
agreed to pay above cost for vaccine doses for their members -
roughly 7 million adults over the age of 15 - thereby
"cross-subsidising" procurement for another 7 million adults
without private cover.
But other schemes or their administrators said the industry
had not yet formally agreed those parameters and there were
different views on how to proceed. More than 80% of South
Africa's population of roughly 60 million are not covered by
medical schemes.
"The principle of cross-subsidy we are 100% on board with,
but the level, ... I think needs to be discussed," said Damian
McHugh, executive head of sales and marketing at Momentum Health
Solutions.
He said medical schemes were able to contribute to different
extents, adding that an agreement could reached as soon as next
week. "These things move quite rapidly, ... there are meetings
that were held last night, there are meetings today," McHugh
said on Friday.
Fedhealth Chief Executive Jeremy Yatt said the cross-subsidy
proposal was legally complicated, adding "as an industry we are
very confused as to why (Discovery) are so hot to trot on this
particular idea. ... There's lots of governance and technical
problems."
Discovery Health told Reuters: "Uncertainty still remains
around the ultimate funding arrangements. ... Various iterations
of models are still being discussed".
Medshield Medical Scheme and Bonitas Medical Fund said they
needed more information from the government and that some
details still needed to be ironed out.
Profmed said one proposal under discussion would place a
greater financial burden on medical schemes than the government
or companies, and alternatives should be discussed.
The National Treasury said this week that the government was
still talking to medical schemes about their contribution.
The government also expects businesses like mining
companies to chip in.
($1 = 15.1150 rand)
(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Alexander Winning
Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Frances Kerry)
