Key Facts
Discovery operates in healthcare cover and life insurance markets in South Africa and the UK and launched Discovery Invest – its investment business – in 2007. Vitality, Discovery’s wellness programme, is the largest provider of individual and corporate wellness initiatives in South Africa, also operating in the UK and US. The company’s core purpose is to make people healthier, and to enhance and protect their lives through financial products that clients need and want.
Discovery Health
- Discovery Health is South Africa’s largest healthcare funder and manager of medical schemes. It covers over two million lives and manages 15 medical schemes.
- This includes the Discovery Health Medical Scheme, the country’s largest open medical scheme and the only one to enjoy an AA+ rating for its claim paying ability, the highest possible credit rating from international rating agency, Global Credit Ratings.
- Discovery Health pioneered consumer-driven healthcare in South Africa with the introduction of innovations like the Medical Savings Account and its wellness programme, Vitality.
Discovery Life
- Discovery Life is South Africa’s fastest growing major life assurer, having captured around 40% of the new business in the independent broker risk market since its inception in 2000.
- It was the first South African insurer to separate risk from investment, leading a change in the environment that is projected to save consumers more than R5 billion by 2010.
Discovery Invest
- Discovery Invest was launched in October 2007.
- Discovery Invest combines the breadth and skill of the asset management industry with the existing research and development capabilities of Discovery Life.
- The company now offers consumers a unique and comprehensive product range that addresses the current gaps in the market by offering greater protection against poor investment choices.
- In the short space of time that Discovery Invest has been launched, over 2 500 intermediaries have written business with Discovery Invest.
- By June 2009, assets under management crossed the R4 billion mark.
PruHealth
- PruHealth was launched into the UK market in October 2004 as a joint venture between Discovery and UK insurer, Prudential, in response to a growing need for consumer-directed private medical insurance products.
- PruHealth was chosen, among other stakeholders, to champion the Department of Health’s small change, big difference campaign. This campaign is aimed at encouraging Britons to improve their health by making small lifestyle changes.
- Since then, PruHealth has grown to cover more than 200 000 lives.
PruProtect
- PruProtect’s strategy mirrors that of Discovery Life, as it is based on the Vitality structure and enables dynamic pricing to be employed in the UK life assurance market. Built into this strategy is the expectation that premium levels will be competitive and risk-selection will be improved.
- By January 2009, PruProtect had 12 franchises with 91 account managers deployed across the UK.
