Momentum Insurance Comments on NHI

Momentum believes it won't lose members due to NHI Over the past 2 years private health insurance members have increased by 17%.

The Chief Executive Officer of Momentum, Anthon Swart commented on the government's plans to introduce a National Health Insurance scheme in the coming years.

Swart said that he is confident that Momentum will not be in danger of losing any of its members when the plan is finally implemented.

"Research shows that all over the world where NHIs are put into place there is always a certain percentage that will opt for private healthcare," he said.

The number of South Africans who have opted to become members of private medical insurance groups has actually increased to 17% over the past couple of years, according to Swart.

However, not everybody agrees with Swart and experts believe that once the government gets the scheme up and running, private medical insurance schemes could be affected.

"How it impacts our medical schemes depends on the changes," said a professor for health economics at UCT, Di McIntyre. "If really good services are provided under a universal system it's quite likely that some of the current medical scheme members will decide to opt out."

However, the number of people who stay or leave will naturally depend on the type of insurance the government will offer, according to Professor McIntyre.

What the experts do agree on is that there will be major consolidations in the medical scheme environment.

One of the latest mergers has been the joining of Ingwe health Plan with Momentum Health - not to forget, of course, Momentum's own merger with Metropolitan.

The South African Competition Tribunal is set to rule on the potential merger between Metropolitan and Momentum, although it is expected to give the final approval needed for the groups to join.