Discovery has launched an affordable health insurance product, Flexicare, which provides primary care cover to those who do not have medical aid. While medical aid schemes in South Africa have 8.9 million beneficiaries, research shows that there are between five and eight million in formal employment who do not have medical aid.
Flexicare is intended to fill this gap and follows last year’s entry into the same market by both Dis-Chem and TymeBank. Discovery will leverage Clicks’s network of around 800 stores in the country for distribution. The offering is not new – it has been available to the retail sector and corporate employers for the last five years and is a way for them to provide a level of healthcare cover for staff who cannot afford medical aid.
A more decided move into this space by Discovery is not surprising. Medical aid membership in South Africa has been flat for some time, with its growth coming from closed schemes and at the expense of smaller open schemes.