Medical scheme brokers’ advice and services should be better valued
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s proposal to get rid of medical scheme brokers is premature and fails to acknowledge the value of their advice, healthcare advisers say.
Butsi Tladi, the chairwoman of the healthcare exco for the Financial Intermediaries Association (FIA), says the minister has oversimplified the role that some 8,000 brokers play and it is not possible, as he suggests, for the medical scheme regulator, the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), to do the work brokers do.
Both the FIA and the Financial Planning Institute (FPI) plan to provide feedback on the minister’s comments, but the Medical Schemes Amendment Bill, released last week, does not, in fact, contain proposals to get rid of brokers, who are paid some R2.2bn by medical schemes.
The bill amends the definition of a broker and a broker service, making it clear that if a fee is paid to a broker on a consumer’s behalf, even if contracted by their employer, it must be with explicit consent...
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