Consumer Goods Medical Scheme launches new options as it opens to entire sector

The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has granted the Consumer Goods Medical Scheme (CGMS) approval to market two new savings options from 1 November.

The launch of the options comes as the CGMS transitions from a company scheme to an industry scheme – opening its membership to employees across the consumer goods sector.

The scheme was registered in 1993 as the Tiger Brands Medical Scheme (TBMS), serving employees of Tiger Brands, Spar, Sea Harvest, and Adcock Ingram. It is administered by Universal Healthcare Administrators (Pty) Ltd.

In November last year, the scheme announced it had rebranded as the CGMS and would be open to all businesses within the consumer goods industry and their employees.

Asked for clarity on how the “consumer goods industry” is defined for the purposes of membership, the CGMS said that as a general guideline, eligibility aligns with the type of businesses that qualify for registration with the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa. “This includes companies involved in the production, import, distribution, marketing, retail, or delivery of goods and services to consumers – whether as producers, importers, wholesalers, retailers, or service providers. In essence, if your business participates in bringing goods or services to consumers, either directly or indirectly, you qualify to join the scheme.”

Although the CGMS remains a restricted scheme, its entry into the consumer goods industry, which has millions of employees, injects competition into a medical schemes sector marked by a 20-year trend of consolidation.

The CGMS had a solvency ratio of 45.4% at the end of last year, well above the statutory minimum of 25%, according to the 2024 report by the scheme’s chairman, which was published in May this year. The scheme ended 2024 with 4 338 members (2023: 4 452), who had 4 442 dependants (4 700).

The two new options that include a medical savings account are CoreSave and UltraSave.

CoreSave, with a starting monthly contribution of R3 899, offers unlimited private hospital cover, wellness benefits, and a personal medical savings account (10% of the monthly contribution) to help manage day-to-day healthcare expenses, said Andre Koekemoer, the principal officer of the CGMS.

The top-tier UltraSave has a starting contribution of about R8 830 a month. Koekemoer said UltraSave builds on CoreSave by providing higher savings limits (25% of the monthly contribution), extended cover for chronic and non-chronic treatments, and extra wellness benefits.

“The approval of CoreSave and UltraSave follows CGMS’s broader transformation from an employer-specific scheme to an inclusive, industry-wide medical scheme – a move that has opened healthcare access to a much wider pool of workers. The scheme’s leadership views this as a validation of our vision to create medical cover that reflects the real-world challenges faced by consumer goods employees, from affordability concerns to heightened exposure to lifestyle and occupational health risks,” Koekemoer said.

Apart from the two new savings options, the CGMS has two plans:

• Base, an entry‐level, income‐tiered plan with hospital cover at 100% of the scheme rate and day-to-day benefits provided by a GP network.
• ABC, which provides comprehensive benefits at three different levels (A, B, and C), with Level A providing the most generous level of cover.

The scheme has proposed a weighted average increase of 9.6% for 2026, while benefit limits across all options will increase by 4.3%.

According to the GCMS’s product brochures, the monthly contribution for CoreSave will be R4 067 per main member, and a principal member of UltraSave will pay R9 210. The monthly contribution for a principal member on Level A, B, or C will be R8 161, R6 599, or R4 934, respectively.