New cancer, funeral and scheme-excluded procedure benefits form part of an expanded portfolio aimed at giving consumers greater choice in funding private healthcare
Seen Here: Healthcare cover is evolving. NetcarePlus has expanded its 2027 offering with new Cancer Cover, Funeral Cover and Scheme-Excluded Procedures benefits, alongside enhanced GapCare and PrimaryCare options — giving South Africans greater choice and flexibility in how they access and fund private healthcare. Photo Credit: Supplied
New cancer, funeral and scheme-excluded procedure benefits form part of an expanded portfolio aimed at giving consumers greater choice in funding private healthcare
SANDTON, 9 September 2026 — South Africa’s healthcare funding landscape is undergoing a significant shift as consumers look for more flexible ways to access private healthcare and protect themselves against rising medical costs.
Against this backdrop, NetcarePlus has unveiled its expanded 2027 offering, positioning healthcare cover around individual needs rather than a single, standardised product.
The new portfolio was announced at the annual NetcarePlus Product Launch in Sandton, with the healthcare provider pointing to rising costs, changing consumer expectations and increasingly diverse healthcare needs as key drivers behind the evolution.
The expansion includes new Cancer Cover and Funeral Cover, as well as a Scheme-Excluded Procedures benefit designed to provide additional financial protection for selected procedures not funded by a member’s medical scheme.
The move comes as medical-scheme coverage remains relatively limited in South Africa. According to the Council for Medical Schemes, approximately 14.6% of the population was covered by medical schemes in 2024, highlighting the significant proportion of South Africans who remain outside traditional medical-scheme arrangements.
Moving beyond the traditional healthcare funding divide
For many years, the healthcare funding conversation has largely been framed as a choice between comprehensive medical-scheme membership and having no private healthcare cover.
NetcarePlus Managing Director Teshlin Akaloo argues that the reality is considerably more complex.
“South Africans have very different healthcare needs and increasingly need different ways to fund them,” Akaloo said.
“Some need affordable access to everyday private healthcare or protection against an emergency. Others already have medical scheme cover but remain exposed to specialist shortfalls, co-payments or treatments their scheme may not cover.”
The result, he said, is a growing need to identify where consumers remain financially exposed when they require healthcare and develop solutions around those specific gaps.
Rising costs are changing the equation
NetcarePlus says its own analysis indicates that average out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure per beneficiary has tripled over the past 11 years, increasing at more than twice the rate of CPI over the same period.
That pressure is reshaping the role of additional healthcare cover.
Rather than viewing healthcare protection as a single product, consumers are increasingly having to consider a combination of everyday healthcare access, emergency protection, specialist shortfalls and financial exposure arising from procedures or services that may not be covered by their existing arrangements.
NetcarePlus says its positioning is based on providing different ways to access private healthcare, including gap cover, emergency medical cover and prepaid procedures. Its existing offering includes access to private doctors and facilities, as well as products designed to address medical-aid shortfalls.
New benefits expand the 2027 portfolio
The 2027 expansion adds several layers of protection to the NetcarePlus portfolio.
Among the new offerings are:
- Cancer Cover
- Funeral Cover
- Scheme-Excluded Procedures benefit
NetcarePlus has also strengthened its GapCare offering with expanded mental-health support, a new optical repair benefit and contraceptive cover.
Its PrimaryCare offering has been enhanced to provide additional access to everyday healthcare, including nurse-led and virtual consultations, flu vaccinations and specialist consultations on selected options.
The broader portfolio is also intended to give employers and financial advisers greater flexibility when structuring healthcare benefits around different workforce requirements, participation models and budgets.
Healthcare expertise as the starting point
A key part of NetcarePlus’s proposition is its connection to the wider Netcare healthcare ecosystem.
The company says this gives it access to insights from healthcare delivery itself, including patient experiences, healthcare utilisation patterns, changing costs and feedback from clients and financial advisers.
“Being part of healthcare delivery gives us a different starting point,” Akaloo said.
“We see healthcare not simply as a claim or a transaction, but as a journey.”
That perspective, he said, creates an opportunity to identify where pressures and gaps emerge in the patient journey and develop cover that responds to those needs.
NetcarePlus describes its broader proposition as health cover built by healthcare experts, with products spanning everyday healthcare, emergencies, planned procedures and protection against unexpected medical costs.
Technology and prevention reshape healthcare
The expansion also comes against a wider global healthcare backdrop.
Ageing populations, increasing chronic disease and pressure on healthcare systems are forcing providers and funders to rethink how care is delivered and financed.
At the same time, advances in technology, data and artificial intelligence are creating opportunities for healthcare to become more connected, preventative and personalised.
For South African consumers, these developments intersect with the country’s own affordability and access challenges, making flexibility increasingly important in healthcare planning.
NetcarePlus already offers access to both in-person and virtual healthcare providers through its network, reflecting the growing role of digital access alongside traditional healthcare delivery.
Growth signals demand for alternatives
NetcarePlus says the business has recorded compound annual growth of 57% over the past three years, indicating increasing demand for alternatives and additional layers of healthcare protection.
The growth comes as consumers and employers navigate the competing pressures of healthcare affordability, access and financial risk.
For consumers with medical schemes, gap products can help address certain shortfalls between scheme benefits and healthcare costs. For those without medical aid, other forms of private healthcare access and emergency protection can provide alternative routes into the private healthcare system.
Importantly, these products do not replace medical schemes where medical-scheme membership is required or appropriate. NetcarePlus itself notes that its GapCare product is insurance and is not a substitute for medical-scheme membership.
The future is about choice
For Akaloo, the future of healthcare funding lies in recognising that South Africans are not a homogeneous market.
“The future of healthcare funding is not about finding one solution for every South African,” he said.
“It is about creating meaningful choice and building protection around different healthcare needs, life stages and budgets.”
That shift towards needs-based healthcare cover could become increasingly important as consumers face rising medical expenses while demanding greater control over how they access and finance care.
For NetcarePlus, the 2027 expansion represents an attempt to meet that changing reality by bringing more choice into the space between traditional medical-scheme cover and paying healthcare costs entirely out of pocket.
The broader proposition is straightforward: healthcare funding does not have to be a one-size-fits-all decision. Instead, consumers can increasingly build protection around the healthcare risks and needs that matter most to them.
