Medical aid schemes have been giving doctors between 4% and 6% increases in fees per annum for the past 20 years or so.

Yet, the administration fees for medical schemes have been constantly going up and the increases in medical aid contributions has been in excess of inflation - between 10% and 12% per annum over the same period.

The processing of claims is now all automated with technology and much less labour dependent, which means the cost of processing medical claims has come down and yet administration fees have gone up.

What increases have all the medical aid scheme trustees and management given themselves? What fancy cars and fancy offices and business class tickets do they award themselves, using money from the scheme's members?

The Medical Aid Council is dominated by the medical schemes themselves so it is in effect a useless body to look after the interest of the public.

The health minister needs to relook at the composition of the council to make it less dominated by medical schemes and to investigate all these medical schemes and to see how much they spend on luxuries for themselves.

The public is suffering, having to pay doctors' gap cover and additional for consultations because the medical schemes have been giving them pittances for increases and now we as the public have to pay the difference.

Nasrine Akoob

North Beach, Durban