Public servants say the 9.5% increase in Gems medical aid contributions comes at a time when the cost of living is already unaffordable, and government salary adjustments are not keeping pace.
This comes after a 13.4% increase from 2025 was implemented.
Trade unions and public servants took to the streets on Saturday out of frustration.
In their memorandum, they argue that the Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems) was never intended to operate as a commercial enterprise.
“It was established to ensure affordable, equitable access to healthcare for public servants, particularly lower- and middle-income workers ... this is economically unjustifiable. It is socially regressive. It is a betrayal of the scheme’s founding purpose,” read the memorandum.
One public servant, Nompulelelo Gongotha, 53, said the increase has already had a direct impact on her medical care.
“It has been implemented already. I have chronic back pain due to an accident in 1998, and I was getting two pain management tablets for two years, but this year, when the doctor prescribed them, they rejected it. Gems yearly reduces the coverage, and so they force us onto generic medication,” she said.
Gongotha said while premiums rise, benefits are shrinking.
“They are putting us into a tight squeeze… the government only increases the subsidy by 4%, and by January, it means that we are starting the year with a deficit, and last year it was 13.4%. I ended up paying the increase, which was R980 in difference,” she said.
Matlhogonolo*, a 37-year-old professional nurse working in Tshwane, said the increase is unsustainable for her household.
“I wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of living… it makes it hard to afford, and there’s only a certain salary increment for all employees.
“I am a professional nurse. Medical aid, in my setup, I would have to part with R4,000; this excludes the subsidy. In January, it was R2,600; it’s almost doubled,” she said.
She said this would put financial strain on her family of four, including her husband and two children, and she can’t afford the time to go to public clinics.
“There are certain things that we can use public health for, and it makes it difficult… but the waiting time is going to be a problem. It will make it much harder… I am a professional nurse working in Tshwane, and we are already under strain with a lack of resources.
“I can’t afford to go stand in the queues at clinics when I have to go back to another hospital to help with those lines, my managers would not allow it,” she said.
Kagiso Moshabela said the increase, in some cases over R1,000, has deepened financial pressure.
“They [GEMS] are so arrogant, and now they are saying we are the ones who use the medical aid excessively, and yet they have limits and, worse, they’ve increased it by 23% when you combine last year and this year,” he said.
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