HEALTH TRENDS: Discovery report shows members are living longer, but illness is becoming more complex

The good news is that Discovery Health Medical Scheme members are living longer. The harder news is that many of those extra years are being spent managing more than one chronic condition.

The HealthTrend26 report, released by Discovery Health this week, shows that death rates among Discovery Health Medical Scheme members have declined by 5.6% over the past decade. The improvement was seen across all age bands, with young adults aged 24 to 39 recording the biggest decline in death rates, at 16.3%. Members aged 75 and older saw death rates drop by 7.8%.

The report is based on clinical, lifestyle and behavioural data from more than 2.7 million members.

Dr Ron Whelan, the CEO of Discovery Health, said the improvement had been driven by earlier diagnosis, better clinical care and changes in behaviour.

“The progressions revealed in our HealthTrend26 report have not happened by accident,” said Whelan. “They reflect deliberate action across the system: earlier diagnosis, better clinical pathways and focused support encouraging members to take control of their health.”

In practical terms, this means more people are getting checked earlier, staying on treatment and managing conditions that may previously have resulted in earlier deaths.

But the flip side of living longer is an increase in your healthcare bill.

The report shows that chronic care is becoming more complex as conditions increasingly overlap. More than half of members with chronic conditions now live with multiple conditions. Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and mental health conditions are among the main drivers of chronic care demand, together accounting for 84% of total chronic spend.

One in three Discovery Health Medical Scheme members is now living with a chronic condition. Members with three or more chronic conditions make up 10% of the membership, but account for 43% of claims costs.

Whelan said many of the answers are already known: go for the screening test, take the medication, manage blood pressure, stop smoking, sleep better and move more. The harder part is getting people to act on that knowledge consistently.

The report calls this the “prevention dividend”, which is the long-term benefit of picking up risks early and acting before illness becomes more serious or more expensive.

The numbers also show the real value of medical scheme cover when something goes badly wrong.

In 2025, just 1% of Discovery Health Medical Scheme members, about 29,000 people, accounted for 33% of total healthcare spend. This amounted to R24.7-billion in claims. The top 5% of members, about 129