Dear Valued Member,
Impact of National Health Insurance (NHI) on Your SAMWUMED Membership
Following the signing of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, SAMWUMED wants to assure you that your existing medical aid cover remains secure.
The full implementation of the NHI will take at least a decade. Your current healthcare plan remains in place. We are confident that medical aid schemes will continue to provide benefits not covered by the NHI when it’s fully implemented.
South Africa’s economic situation and limited tax base raise concerns about funding extensive healthcare benefits through the NHI. Therefore, medical schemes will remain crucial for access to comprehensive, high-quality healthcare.
Please do not cancel your medical aid
To ensure continued access to your current SAMWUMED benefits, we advise against cancelling your medical aid. The NHI rollout will be phased over several years. The signing has no immediate impact on medical scheme membership. We remain committed to enabling your access to healthcare services.
SAMWUMED’s View on NHI
While the NHI’s goal of addressing healthcare system challenges and ensuring universal access to quality care is commendable, we believe the current act may not achieve this fully and could ultimately reduce the role of medical schemes to a complementary one. We strongly believe medical schemes are a national asset and should play a significant role in creating access to healthcare now and in the future.
We will continue to monitor NHI developments, engage with authorities, and keep you informed.
What’s Next?
Whilst this process is underway. we wish to assure you that medical schemes and in particular SAMWUMED remain unchanged and that our commitment remains to be your family’s scheme of choice, committed to quality healthcare through service excellence, accessible and affordable healthcare, and an accountable administration.
Issued by
SAMWUMED Communications and Marketing Department
