The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE cost of health care services has gone up with civil servants fearing that premiums for medical aid and funeral insurance will gobble up more than half of their salaries.
Medical aid and funeral services insurance companies have announced a steep increase in premiums that would hit hard on low earners. Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS), which is popular among civil servants announced that its most expensive package will cost $6 660 while its lowest package will cost $250 per person per month. Civil servants earn an average of $3 500 per month.
“The society has found it necessary to review medical aid subscriptions with effect from 1 June 2020. The continued increase in the cost of health care services has necessitated our decision, hence the reviewed benefits will enable the society to reimburse health care services at the Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe (AHFoZ) median tariff level,” the company said.
For the PSMAS Pinnacle Plan, which is the highest, a member, spouse, child under 18 years of age and an adult dependent will fork out ZW$6 660 per month. While the least package which is the Shield, Docet and Edu Plan each cost ZW$250 across the packages.
Another company First Mutual Health also announced new premiums with the lowest package selling at $170 for an adult and $73 for a child, the highest package is selling at $12 699 for an adult and $7 843 for a child. Bonvie Medical Aid society also raised their premiums by 52 percent effective 1 July 2020. One of the largest funeral insurance companies, Nyaradzo Life Assurance Company Funeral Services which boasts of over three million subscribers, also announced its increases.
For the top package, Platinum Plus, Nyaradzo subscribers will now pay $380,80 a month for an adult and $228,48 for a dependent. Silver Standard package will see members paying $97,44 for an adult and $58,46. The health care insurance service providers have argued that they increased the premiums to cover for rising costs. In 2017, a report revealed that only about 1,4 million out of 14 million people have medical insurance which was a cause for concern.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said teachers were in a difficult situation.
“They (teachers) have no capacity anymore to pay, for example, Nyaradzo will be demanding about $400 per person when a teacher earns about $3 200, the medical aid will be demanding the same amount of money and at the end of the day there is inadequate base for the teacher to survive. They are going to fail to get access to insurance and that will mean that we will have problems to give decent burials,” said Mr Ndlovu.
He said the Government must consider raising salaries immediately.
