The rising cost of healthcare in SA & How criminals impersonate executors to steal inheritances

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

And now, The Money Show with Stephen Grootes on 702

SPEAKER_2 (0:06)

Let's walk the talk.

Stephen Grootes (0:07)

Eight minutes after six, The Money Show with Stephen Grootes is brought to you by Absa Corporate and Investment Banking, connecting global finance to the future. That's how Absa is invested in your story. Good evening. Welcome to the programme. Lots tonight about medical aid inflation. I'd love to know the impact on you. Healthcare costs are going up and up and up. Some of the numbers are quite scary. The single exit price for medicine, having what's described as an extra ordinary increase today. They don't mean the amount. They mean it is an increase which is being applied outside of the normal cycle. At the same time, we have Discovery announcing their increases for next year. Much higher than ordinary inflation. We're becoming used to that with medical price inflation. We'll focus on this tonight. In a moment, Stavros Nicolaou, the chair of the pharmacy group Pharmisa, will speak to him about the single exit price decision. Dr. Katlego Mothudi is the Managing Director of the Board of Healthcare Funders. What he's saying with inflation, also tonight, the CEO at Discovery Health, Dr. Ron Whelan, about their big increases. All of that to come in the next few moments or so. But I would like to hear from you. We keep hearing about churn in the medical aid industry. People who find they're unable to pay their premiums. You find maybe when you get to a hospital that has been bouncing.

If you've come across that, if it's happened to you, please, 72 702 1702 You might be one of those who just is dying literally just praying and waiting for the NHI to come in. You might think actually private health care is all we've got. Really appreciate your view on that, please, on 72 702 1702 But how difficult it's becoming to pay for health care. All of that to come in just a moment.

Also, we'll speak to the Home Affairs Minister, Leon Schreiber, about the big new changes to IDs. Quite exciting in a way, actually. And then the issue of people stealing inherences.

Ellen Dutoy is a member of the Assisi Forensic Standing Committee. A really important conversation there. Good to hear from you. 011-883-0702-021-4460567. And please, your stories this evening about healthcare paying for it would really appreciate that on 072-702-1702.

SPEAKER_1 (2:24)

The Money Show with Stephen Grootes, live on 92.7 and 106 FM, streaming on the Prime Media Plus app and DSTV channel 856

Stephen Grootes (2:35)

Well, we start with the latest price increases in the health sector, the health department today issuing what's called an extraordinary increase in the single exit price of all registered medicines. They go up by nearly 3%. That's on top of the increase that was already allowed in the ordinary course earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Discovery Health, their account for around 58% of all members of open medical schemes today announcing their price increases for next year range from 7.4% to 8.9%.

We start with Dr. Stavros Nicolaou, the chair of the pharmaceutical action group Pharmisa. Stavros, good evening and thanks for your time. Your sector asked for the second increase. What's been pushing your costs up so dramatically?

Stavros Nicolaou (3:18)

Stephen, firstly, good evening and wonderful to be back on your show again.

The single exit price as it's known pertains to the private sector. And it is an annual review.

We received as a pharmaceutical industry our single exit price adjustment on 1 January 2026, beginning of the year. And we received 1,47% increase. I should point out at the time that inflation CPR was sitting at 3.3%.

So there was a degree of anxiety from the industry already at that point in time because we had received less than half of what inflation was sitting at at the time. As matters got worse in March, when we started seeing the first manifestations of the Straits of Hume's crisis and the Gulf oil crisis, and costs started spiraling upwards. These are input costs. These are the costs to manufacture. The medicines and independent studies demonstrated that input costs had gone up in some cases by 30 to 40 percent. So we faced an unsustainable situation. Inflation kept creeping up. It's sitting at around 3.6 percent at the moment or there or thereabouts. And 1,47 percent was wholly inadequate. It meant that in some cases, manufacturers were unable to supply medicines, which is not good for patients. So the worst form of access is when you can't supply medicines. So we did appeal to the National Health Department. And they, as you correctly stated earlier, they agreed to a 2.88 percent further increase. Now, that 2.88 percent is not whole because it only applies for October, November and December. But the crisis has been going on since March. So if you are to tally up the total here, you actually come out at 2.1 percent. Now, how did I get there? It's the initial 1,47 percent plus 3 months of, 12 months of 2.88 percent gives you 2.1 percent. So still way below inflation. But it does provide some relief and will also, I think, restore some of the medicines that are currently not in supply because of the pricing and margin pressures.