How much does medical aid cost in South Africa in 2026?

Open schemes sell four broad kinds of plan. This table shows the cheapest and dearest verified 2026 main-member price we found for each. All prices are per month.

The range inside each type is wide because networks, savings accounts, benefit limits and income bands differ from scheme to scheme. Compare a plan with the same type at another scheme, not with a different type.

These plans keep the price down by asking you to use a network of hospitals and GPs, or by pricing on income. Where a range is shown, the lower figure is the lowest income band and the higher figure the top band.

See our guides to the cheapest medical aid and low income medical aid for the catches, and Discovery KeyCare, Bonitas BonCap and Momentum Ingwe for the individual plans.

A hospital plan pays for admissions, theatre, ward costs and Prescribed Minimum Benefits (PMBs). You pay for GP visits, dentistry and most medicine yourself. These are the cheapest of the hospital plans we could verify.

The full list, with more schemes and the network rules, is in our hospital plans guide.

A saver plan puts part of the contribution into a medical savings account for day-to-day costs. Prices below include the savings portion unless the note says otherwise.

You pay for day-to-day costs yourself once the account runs out. Our medical savings account guide explains how they work.

Comprehensive plans add wider day-to-day cover, more chronic conditions and higher limits. Discovery prices apply from 1 April 2026.

Higher price does not automatically mean better fit. Compare what you would use in a normal year against the difference in contribution. Our hospital plan vs comprehensive guide sets out the trade-off.

• Plan type. The biggest driver. Day-to-day and chronic benefits cost more than hospital-only cover.
• Dependants. On Bonitas Standard the main member pays R5 929, an adult dependant R5 139 and a child R1 740. Some plans charge one rate for everyone: Bonitas BonCore is R1 275 for every beneficiary, and on Momentum Evolve one adult costs R2 029 while one adult plus one child costs R4 058. Many schemes limit how many children you pay for: Bestmed and KeyHealth Equilibrium charge for a maximum of three, Fedhealth makes the fourth and later children free, and Medihelp MedAdd Elect charges for only two children under 18.
• Income. On income-based plans a higher income band costs more. On most other plans income makes no difference.
• Network. Bestmed Beat1 is R2 523 and Beat1 Network is R2 269. Medshield MediValue is R3 207 on the Prime network and R2 907 on Compact. Momentum lets Custom, Incentive and Extender members save up to R1 000 a month by using its Associated providers, and Fedhealth GRID options save 10% a month.
• Age and health do not set your price. Contributions must be based on income and/or the number of dependants, not on age, sex or state of health. The one prescribed exception is the late-joiner penalty.
• Late-joiner penalty. If you first join at age 35 or older without enough earlier cover, the scheme may add a penalty on your own share of the contribution. The maximum is 5% for 1 to 4 years of missing cover, 25% for 5 to 14 years, 50% for 15 to 24 years and 75% for 25 years or more. See the late joiner penalty guide.

Add the main member rate, the rate for each adult dependant and the rate for each child (up to the scheme's child cap). Then allow for the SARS medical scheme fees tax credit.

For 2026/27 the credit is R376 a month for you as the taxpayer who paid the contributions, R752 a month for you and one dependant together, and R254 a month for each additional dependant. It is a fixed amount, not linked to your premium, it only reduces the tax you owe and unused amounts cannot be carried over. Our medical aid tax credit guide covers the extra credit for people aged 65 or older and for disability.

Also budget for what the contribution does not pay: co-payments, day-to-day costs once savings run out, and specialist shortfalls. A cheap plan with heavy co-payments can cost more over a year than a dearer plan that pays properly.

The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) asked schemes in Circular 20 of 2026, dated 31 July 2026, to anchor 2027 increases at 3.8%. That is a benchmark, not a cap, and the CMS itself notes that private medical inflation usually runs 2 to 3 percentage points above CPI. As of 29 September 2026 two schemes had published 2027 contributions: Medshield with a 7.9% weighted average increase, and Fedhealth, which put 60% of its members at an average weighted 8.9%. Discovery, Bonitas, Momentum, Bestmed and Medihelp had not announced when we checked.

Read the detail, with 2026 increases for comparison, in our 2027 medical aid increases guide. Read the CMS circular for the regulator's wording.

A low price is only worth having from a scheme that stays solvent and pays claims.

• The statutory minimum solvency ratio is 25%. CompCare reported 21.83% for 2024 and is operating under a CMS-approved recovery plan.
• Sizwe Hosmed has been under provisional curatorship since 4 September 2025 and was self-administered from 1 September 2026, with curatorship projected to end in September 2027.
• Suremed has a merger with an unnamed partner planned for 1 January 2027.
• Bonitas moved administration to Momentum Health on 1 June 2026 and apologised on 27 July 2026 for service disruption during the move.

If you cannot resolve a problem with your scheme, complain to the scheme first and then to the CMS. Our complaints guide shows how.