South Africa
#Covid19: Push to make tests more accessible─── 06:36 Tue, 14 Dec 2021
The Council for Medical Schemes says while it's happy with the cost reductions for Covid-19 tests, it will continue to push for prices to be slashed.
The council says PCR tests should be more affordable to the public. The cost of Covid-19 tests in the private sector has been reduced from R850 to R500. This follows a complaint lodged in October about the exorbitant price.
"It remains to be seen whether R500 is a good price," said the council's John Letsoalo.
"I think there are going to be a lot of engagements to the pricing, costing, input costs in relation to the PCR test, so I think as the council we'll be engaging relevant stakeholders, the private laboratories, department and funders from our side to determine whether the R500 is a justifiable amount to be paid."
The Competition Commission alleged the pricing was unfairly inflated, exorbitant and unjustifiable.
