KAELO Holdings, the private healthcare provider, said this week that it hopes its partnership with Dis-Chem will make it easier to reach the 12 million employed South Africans, and their dependants, who don’t have medical aid cover.
Dis-Chem acquired a 25 percent stake in Kaelo for R195 million and the transaction received the green light from the Competition Commission in October, paving the way for the unique partnership to become effective this month.
Kaelo’s chief executive and one of its founders, John Jutzen, said the partnership with Dis-Chem was a boost to its footprint and would change the way in which its products were distributed by enabling customers to sign up at Dis-Chem pharmacies as opposed to only via payroll deductions.
Kaelo, meaning “guardian” in Tswana , was established two decades ago and provides gap cover insurance to pay for hospital shortfalls not covered by medical schemes, primary healthcare cover, occupational health clinics and psychological well-being services.
Jutzen said the Dis-Chem partnership aims to change the healthcare landscape given that only 16 percent of the population - 9.3 million people in South Africa are on a medical scheme of which only approximately 4.5 million are employed, while the rest are dependants or pensioners, leaving the balance of population with no access to private cover.
“The most affordable medical scheme product is over R1 000 per member per month and if you want to put a family on it you can expect to pay around R3 000 to R5 000 a month, which it is very expensive for the average family. We are not saying medical schemes don’t do a great job, they do, but not everybody can reach that monthly instalment. Our goal is to provide an effective set of services all the way from primary care through to trauma-based medical insurance at an affordable rate,” he said.
Jutzen said Kaelo’s offers products in the range of R600 down to R200 per person per a month.
He said the Dis-Chem transaction makes it possible for the company to provide customers directly with their products through online or call channels.
Kaelo’s mental health platform has nearly 1.5 million subscribers and there were more than 400 000 people using its healthcare and gap cover platforms, said Jutzen.
He said the partnership with Dis-Chem would result in the company making a meaningful change in the lives of ordinary people. “It validates our decision to start this business. All entrepreneurs see a problem that has to be solved and cannot be solved until they do something about it. So we have successfully addressed the problem of lack of accessible private affordable health care ,“ said Jutzen.
Jutzen said although Kaelo was fully aligned to the state and the principles of National Health Insurance (NHI) it also understood that it was a challenge for the state to deliver care at this scale and, therefore, the private sector had a positive role to play.
“This partnership fills me with hope as it creates scale and therefore we can make a difference in many people’s health and their lives,” said Jutzen.
According to reports the public health system caters for an estimated 84 percent of the population who are without medical cover resulting in public health facilities buckling under pressure. The pressure on the public health system is one of the reasons the government proposed the introduction of the National Health Insurance, a no-fees service for all South Africans.
dineo.faku@inl.co.za
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE