Ideas on What You can do about the 2025 Medical Aid Premium Increases.
In 2025, South African medical aid premiums are expected to increase on average between 9.3% and 12.8%,which is well above the general inflation rate of about 4.4%. The increases are as a result0 of rapidly rising medical and healthcare costs, higher post-COVID usage, and the need for schemes to maintain regulated financial reserves.
To meet these premium increases, you should carefully re-examine your healthcare needs, and consider switching to a more affordable plan or option.
Consult a broker like bestmedicalaid.co.za who can professionally take you through the process to help you get the best benefits for an affordable premium.
The 2025 premium increases have been announced, and they are around 10% higher than the 2024 rates!
- Discovery Health: 9.3%
- Bonitas: 10.2%
- Momentum: 9.4%
- Medihelp: 10.8%
- Bestmed:2.7%
This is frightening, especially when CPI is around 6%!
It has now become vital that you look to ways of securing the finest hospital care at the best price you can.
Your Needs:
Private Hospital BenefitsPrivate hospitalisation can have unforeseen, huge expenses.
Costs can be so high that you cannot afford private care and may have to resort to state hospitals for treatment, which is not a desirable situation.
A medical aid with unlimited hospital benefits must be the foundation of your plan.
Costs like GP visits, dentist appointments, and chemist bills form out-of-hospital costs and we have never had a client who has become bankrupt because of high out-of-hospital costs.
Although many members self-pay these costs, you may want some security so you can afford to pay for these treatments.
A medical aid offers two ways to pay for out-of-hospital costs:
- A savings account from which you pay expenses.
- Set benefits and limits that pay these costs.
Either way, having these out-of-hospital benefits increases your overall premium.
What to Do:
Living in a country with an ineffective national health service, you need to be able to afford the finest private hospital care.
Here are three ideas to consider:
1. Join a Medical Aid Plan with Unlimited Private Hospital Benefits
All medical aids offer these plans however, Fedhealth offers an excellent plan that deserves your attention!
Fedhealth Medical Aid is truly an exceptional medical aid because they really do offer the best, affordable, unique, value-added benefits of any scheme in South Africa.
All plans have excellent in-hospital benefits and the offer of day-to-day savings which are re-paid only when you spend them!
If you choose NOT to use the savings, you have a hospital plan!
Just look at their hospital benefits:
- No overall annual limit private hospital cover, for emergencies and planned procedures.
- Unlimited network GP and Specialist covered at cost in-hospital.
- Treatment for selected procedures in a day ward, day clinic or doctors’ rooms.
- Unlimited Specialised radiology.
- Unlimited accident and emergency treatment.
- Emergency treatment at a trauma unit of a clinic or hospital, like stitches and broken bones – whether you’re admitted to the hospital or not.
- Costs paid for treatment at a clinic or hospital with a life- threatening condition where you are admitted immediately for further treatment.
- If medicines are not readily available Fedhealth will arrange for medicine or blood products to be delivered to the facility where you are being treated.
- Unlimited maternity covered at cost with network GPs and specialists.
- Specialised radiology, like MRI/ CT scans done in or out-of-hospital, is paid by the scheme and not you!
- Chronic illness.
Premiums range from as little as R 1,055 pm for a single member.
From generous maternity and childhood benefits for young families, to extensive chronic benefits for older members, or treatment in a casualty ward after falling off a mountain bike for sporty members… they have you covered.
2. Consider Combining a Medical Aid Hospital Plan with Day-to-Day Medical Insurance
Some brokers advocate joining a medical aid hospital plan and combining it with a day-to-day medical insurance for out-of-hospital benefits.
However, this idea has several concerns:
- Your combined premium is more than that of a low-cost medical aid.
- The two products can be difficult to understand when it comes to benefits, exclusions, co-payments, and waiting periods or restrictions.
Each plan has its own rules. - Medical aids must pay for certain treatments known as Prescribed Minimum Benefits.
This makes them way more secure than a medical insurance which can totally exclude certain pre-existing conditions and elective procedures.
- A medical aid guarantees acceptance regardless of pre-existing conditions.
They cannot exclude these conditions, and only impose a maximum waiting period of one year. - Medical schemes typically pay providers directly, reducing the members' administrative burden and eliminating up-front payments.
Medical insurance generally requires members to pay costs upfront and then submit claims for reimbursement.
This can be problematic. - Medical insurance benefits are generally kept at predetermined amounts, which may not cover the full cost of the treatment.
- Unlike medical aids with an in-hospital shortfall, a gap cover plan will not pay medical insurance shortfalls.
You are responsible for paying any shortfall. - Medical insurance does not cover chronic illness as comprehensively as a medical aid.
Medical aids must provide full benefits for 27 chronic illnesses. - Medical aids offer additional benefits like preventative services, routine check-ups, and wellness benefits that medical insurance does not.
These are vital in reducing the severity and cost of possible future illnesses.
These concerns aside, you can join a Day-to-Day insurance plan along with your Medical Aid to increase your out-of-hospital benefits.
And it works with any medical aid.
3. Join a medical aid hospital-only plan and self-pay your day-to-day costs or create your own savings fund to do this.
This approach allows you to create your own savings fund for medical expenses and although it takes time to grow, it is your money, and you can spend it as you wish.
The fund can double as your emergency fund, unlike savings held within a medical aid, which can only be spent on medical expenses.
You can use an access-type home bond as your savings fund.
In this way, when you do not need to spend from the bond, you pay your loan capital far more quickly and can save huge interest over the term.
Facing these huge medical aid increases going into 2025, many members may have no choice but to downgrade their plans
If this is something you are concerned about, we urge you to contact us for support and guidance on any decision you may make.
But never be without private hospital cover!
Private healthcare providers can charge up to 500% of medical scheme rates.Medical aids add procedure co-payments as well.
These are significant costs you must consider.
Protect yourself by joining Zest's GAP or top-up insurance plan.
This separate insurance will cover most in-hospital claim shortfalls and any co-payments. It is a vital safety net, ensuring you have enough to cover medical treatments, without having to pay for unexpected costs.Joining a hospital plan with Gap Cover remains the most affordable way for families to protect against rising costs in 2026.
Specialised Dental treatments can be extremely expensive!
The costs of braces, root canal, implants and so on, can run into thousands of rand.Most treatments are done out-of-hospital, and are paid from your savings.
That can result in less money available for other medical needs and family limits being used on one member only!
Dental treatment is something we all need and it is vital you consider the Best Dental Insurance Plan
OR Most Affordable Dental Plan in South Africa.
No Medical Aid or have a Hospital Plan only?
This plan will help you meet the high costs of both normal and specialised dentistry!
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Peter Pyburn - Authorised Financial Services Provider has been fully licensed to provide expert financial services since 1991.Based in Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, we specialise in comprehensive financial planning including: Death and Disability Cover, Retirement Planning, Investment Strategies, Medical Aid, Estate Planning
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Last verified: January 13, 2026