Discovery's headquarters in Sandton, Johannesburg. Discovery's Medical Health Scheme maintained a solvency ratio at about 32,6% in 2025, well above the 25% regulatory requirement, with reserves of around R39bn.
Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) says it remained financially resilient in 2025, while its members are living longer than they had ten years ago.
This emerged from South Africa’s largest open medical scheme of more than 2.7 million beneficiaries, at its annual general meeting held late last week. The scheme paid more than R89.4 billion in claims in 2025 from 64 million claims, reinforcing its role in enabling access to private healthcare at scale.
The recent HealthTrend26 report, based on more than 60 million life-years of Discovery Health Medical Scheme’s clinical, lifestyle and behavioural data, showed that earlier diagnosis, improved treatment pathways and sustained behaviour changes were contributing to better health outcomes.
Over the past decade, the overall mortality rate among its members has declined by 5,6%.
