Natalspruit hospital in Katlehong, South Africa. (Photo: Nadine Hutton/BB)
South Africa's private health care market is uncompetitive and needs tougher regulation to ease the dominance of three main hospital operators and insurers led by Discovery Ltd., according to a much-delayed report on the industry.
The Health Market Inquiry, which has been investigating the industry for four years, made a series of recommendations in an 800-page report intended to increase competition and transparency in the industry.
It found that Mediclinic International PLC, Netcare Ltd. and Life Healthcare Group Holdings Ltd. have a combined 90% market share of the private hospital market while Discovery generates far higher profit than its competitors.
The probe was initiated by the Competition Commission amid broader concern that private healthcare is only available to a minority of people who can afford it. More than two decades after the end of white rule, the country's inequality rates are among the highest in the world and more than one in four people are unemployed.
"Part of our recommendations will be aimed at regulators who, we have concluded, are not as sensitive to core competition concepts as they should be," the inquiry said in its report.
