Johannesburg - Removing tax credits for medical schemes will make them unaffordable to 22% of current scheme holders, affecting poorer members most.
This is according to research by economics consultancy Econex, which looked at the impact of removing tax credits to medical schemes and then reallocating them to funding National Health Insurance (NHI), suggested by the 2017 White Paper.
The tax credits are paid to principal members of medical schemes to “reimburse” them for making use of private healthcare. During 2014/15 the amount of tax credits paid to these principal members was about R18.5bn.
