Probably the most well-known medical aid company in South Africa, Discovery, has launched a new Prepaid Health platform that’ll allow a greater part of the population to access quality healthcare. Initially, it’s launching a R300 GP visit and meds bundle voucher, with more options to follow in coming months.
If you sign up to the Discovery Prepaid Health platform (which can be done through the Discovery website), you’ll be considered a Discovery member, but you’ll have access to all of its prepaid/voucher health products.
“[T]his product is available to anyone in South Africa with a valid identity document such as the ID document or ID smart card or a valid passport. Further, existing Discovery clients can also purchase the Discovery Health Prepaid voucher either for themselves or for somebody else like a family member or an employee,” a Discovery spokesperson said when Stuff spoke to them about the new products.
These tailored health vouchers can be purchased from Discovery’s website, through a portal on WhatsApp or at over 350,000 retailers nationwide. Once a voucher is bought, it can be redeemed at any of the Discovery Prepaid network practitioners.
Discovery of the R300 voucher
The first option available in the Discovery Prepaid Health range is the R300 GP doctor consultation voucher, which includes the medication prescribed by the GP during the visit. This isn’t limited to the R300 voucher cost, however, and the doctor’s bill, as well as the meds, will be covered by this voucher.
“The voucher prices have been pre-negotiated with network doctors and so Discovery Prepaid customers are guaranteed to receive care for the voucher price amount. E.g., a R300 GP + meds voucher will give customers access to a face to face network doctor consultation and medication at the R300 price. Should the customer require a procedure or a referral to a specialist however, this service and cost is outside of the voucher,” the Discovery spokesperson said.
Initially, the Discovery Prepaid Health network will include doctors in the major metros within eight of the nine provinces, but the health insurance company assures us that this will continue to expand, with new practices being added daily.
This may not be the perfect solution to South Africa’s problematic access to quality healthcare, but this offering will make basic access to healthcare slightly more accessible. In addition to this initiative, Discovery is doing free COVID-19 screenings in collaboration with Vodacom.
