PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT DISCOVERY HEALTH - INCREASE PREMIUM BY 47% FOR OLD AND POOR PEOPLE

• KeyCare*: 6,9 % increase • Core: 8,9 % increase • Smart: 8,9 % increase • Coastal: 9,9 % increase • Saver: 8,9 % increase • Priority: 8,9 % increase • Comprehensive: 9,9 % increase • Executive: 9,9 % increase • *Excluding restructured KeyCare Plus and Core income bands, and KeyCare Start

The list above is information provided to Discovery members to inform them of 2019 increases. It is advertised in the way displayed above.

The above mentioned increase for Discovery Keycare is a 100% misrepresentation!! If you actually click on the increases for 2019 and go to Keycare Plus, the increase is actually 47,07% and not 6.9%. That is insane, inhuman, unfair – there are not enough words that can describe the increase of more than 47% . My Parents are both pensioners with an income of below R6000, the premium is going to increase from R1980 to R2912 – increase of R932 per month!!!!! The specialist benefit will increase from R3 860 – R4 050 per member – that is in increase of only R190. So Discovery’s increase in premium is more than 47% but the specialist benefit increased with 4.9%!!!!If you question it, Discovery’s, don’t care-answer is: Go to the new lower options because Keycare Plus has been restructured. Yes, Discovery, by increasing the premium of Keycare Plus members by more than 47% you are forcing members to go on Keycare Core, that does not cover day to day GP visits and casualty care, OR Keycare Starter, the new option, only allows cancer treatment and chronic benefits at a State facility. You GP visits and hospitalisation are only covered by Keycare Starter GP’s and hospitals, which are so limited, that it is nearly impossible to get a GP. In my Parents case in the area where they are located, there is only 1 doctor on the list and the Eugene Marais hospital. It is already a struggle to get a GP that is on the Keycare Plus list, even more so on the Keycare Starter list. Discovery is still earning an income while offering extremely limited benefits. Every South African knows in what condition our State facilities are, it is already over crowed, with limited to NO service, and now Discovery is making the situation worse, by forcing hundreds of members to visit state facilities for cancer treatment and to receive the chronic medication, while still paying a premium of R839 – R2198 per member per month, depending on your income bracket. What a *******!!! My dad is turning 77 in a few months, has been receiving cancer treatments for approximately 20 years for different types of cancer, again received treatment this year, and most probably will need treatment again next year, survived a heart attack last year, and Discovery thinks it is FAIR to send him to a state facility for treatment, only because you are increasing the premium with R932 per month, an increase that most people can’t afford to pay!! DISCOVERY MUST FEEL VERY PROUD, KNOWING THAT THEY ARE DESTROYING MEMBERS’S LIFE’S.

Jonathan Broomberg and Board of Trustees, is this really the only solution you could come up with, to increase the premium of Keycare Plus by more than 47 %, and forcing most members to go on the cheaper options, while you are still earning a good premium, but Discovery offering very limited benefits in return???? Clearly you are only focusing on the more affluent members, keeping them happy by keeping their increases below 10%, at the expense of the poor and old people who are mostly the members on Keycare. Cleary your strategy was, let’s throw the Keycare Plus members under the bus, keep the better and more expensive options’ increases as low as possible, because then those members will stay with Discovery, we can’t afford to loose those members. Again focus is on profit, profit at all costs, people does not matter.!!! One word summary – GREED!!!

In July 2018 the Competition Commission’s report said “Discovery Health’s operating model had enabled it to make large profits over a sustained period, which were far in excess of its competitors”. The accusation was also that “Discovery charged higher than necessary service fees to its medical scheme clients”!!The provisional report, released at a briefing by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, said the absence of effective competition to Discovery Health’s dominance, which was growing ever stronger, was an indication of “Market failure”. I agree 100%, with the Competition Commission’s report, but for 2019 this is EVEN MORE TRUE for Keycare Plus members, by increasing their premiums by more than 47%!!! The explanation we received was that due to losses Discovery had to restructure or totally cut the KeyCare line, what losses are they talking about?? In the year to end June 2017 Discovery Health, which has 3,4 million members and a 40% share of the medical schemes market, increased its normalised operating profit 11% to R2.5 bil. Premium income from its core new business annualised rose 18% to R6 bil.!! So please explain the losses you are referring to. No, it is not losses, but rather LESS profit and a lower reserve fund. If you are so worried about “losses” why not direct increases in premiums at the higher (better) options available to members, why put your whole focus on the Keycare range the is the option that the poor and old people can afford??? It is because Discovery has millions of members and thinks they are untouchable. Due to Discovery not having real competitors, the market failed South Africans.

You have 8 core values, that includes the following: fairness, integrity and honesty; smart leadership; the ability to amaze people. What a joke!!!! How is it fair to increase the premium of a certain option by more than 47%, how is that displaying integrating and honesty, if the information brochure mentions 6.9 % increase and only when you click on the further information and investigate properly do you realise NO IT IS NOT 6.9 % INCREASE BUT ACTUALLY MORE THAN 47%!! You changed the income brackets for Keycare Plus members, and now there are only 2 income brackets, namely 0-13050 income and 13051+. Is it FAIR to ask the same premium for a member who’s income is below R5 -6000 and a member who’s income is R12-13000??? That is not fair, and definitely not displaying integrity!!! Smart leadership, is it smart leadership in your eyes to force poor and old people to consider options that will provide very limited medical cover, but keep the affluent members happy at all cost by keeping their increases below 10%. The ability to amaze people – no you do not amaze people, you shock them, you put them under tremendous pressure and give them a feeling of DESPAIR and No Hope for the future!!! So please change your core values because that is misrepresentation as well!!! You do not live up to your core values!!

Mr Adrian Gore must have a discussion with Mr Jonathan Broomberg and his Board of Trustees because people do not differentiate between Discovery and Discovery Health. They are still part of the Discovery Group and Health gives the whole group a negative reputation.

I know Discovery is a big company and think they are untouchable, but I’m going to make it my main purpose to expose Discovery Health’s true nature – namely Greed, Profit and focusing on affluent market by destroying the poor and old people!!! Most people on Keycare Plus choose that option because they could not afford the better options, and now the Board of Trustees choose THAT option to increase their premiums with more 47% and try to justify this by saying: If you can’t afford the new premium, go to the new Starter option, although you know they offer very limited services. Mr Broomberg and Board of Trustees it is very easy to make this type of decision, if you are earning millions. You do not have a clue what poor and old people are having to deal with and how much stress it causes just to survive every month. I’m sick to my stomach, because I do not know how to give the news to my parents of the crazy, inhuman increase. I am scared to death that my dad is going to have another heart attack, as this happened last year, also due to stress of the way Discovery dealt with some of the claims and initially refusal to pay. After opening a case against Discovery at the Council for Medical Schemes Discovery finally paid, but it was too late, my dad had already had a heart attack.

I’m begging all South Africans NOT to support Discovery Health, there focus is only on profits and the affluent market. They do not care one bit about the poor and old people. Their Board of Trustees will not make decisions that will take care of that part of the society that really needs medical care (that is actually a very big part of the South African market), because it will have a negative impact on their profits and reserve fund!!! They care about PROFIT NOT PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY NOT PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY NEEDS MEDICAL AID, BECAUSE THERE IS NO ADDITIONAL MONEY AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR MEDICAL CARE OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKET. SHAME ON YOU DISCOVERY (Health), SHAME ON YOU!!!! Karina van den Berg **********