Vitality’s 65+, bespoke programme for older adults enables members to live longer and better

Discovery is pleased to announce the successful launch of its Vitality 65+ offering. Vitality members, 65 years or older, can now achieve better health with age-appropriate goals, interventions and activities, with exclusive enhancements to the Vitality programme, across Health, Insure, Life and Invest - that help them achieve better health with age-appropriate goals, interventions and activities.

Though aging represents a triumph of medical, social, and economic advances over disease, it also presents tremendous challenges. The World Health Organisation says that older people around the world are living longer, but there is little evidence that they are living in better health compared to their parents, particularly in lower and middle-income countries like South Africa where older adults are more likely to experience poor health and correspondingly low levels of well-being.

With some of these challenges in mind, Discovery Vitality CEO Dinesh Govender explains, “Our programme is predicated on our understanding the needs of members and communities at every stage of their lives and wellness journeys”. He adds, “Vitality 65+ is helping this group of members to unlock holistic value in living longer through enhancements to the Vitality programme that help them become and stay healthy.”

What's new for Vitality members who are 65 years or older?

Vitality 65+ members are now rewarded for eating healthily, completing age-relevant health checks, and achieving age-appropriate exercise goals. More specifically, this group of members can benefit from: An enhanced screening journey for key health unique risks (e.g. hearing, vision, falls), tailored Vitality points earning for physical activity; adjusted biometric ranges; preventive vaccines; enhanced risk reporting and savings on health monitoring devices.

Despite the current subdued screening environment due to social distancing, almost 100 seniors have completed the Vitality Health Check for 65+ screening in the first month alone, reflecting the value members see in this enhancement. But beyond the Vitality rewards, these are clinically proven strategies for improving longevity and quality of life in older adults.

A full view of the many Vitality 65+ benefits and information can be accessed here.

Financial health is integral to overall wellbeing and quality of life.

Research shows that many individuals are ill-prepared for the financial demands of retirement. “People think that their post-retirement expenses will be lower than before retirement. However, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 33% of households increase their spending during their first six months of retirement,” says Discovery Insure CEO Anton Ossip.

For this reason, older adults often try to find ways to cut expenses during their retirement years. One of the expenses many older adults cut is their car insurance because they are overcharged on their premiums. Ossip expands, “Traditional insurers overcharge adults older than 65 because of the myth that older people are worse drivers due to vision, cognition and motor function impairment”.

Interestingly however, Discovery Insure data shows that older adults have a 28% higher Vitality Drive Driving score than other drivers and drive 37% less kilometres per month than other drivers. And so, with Vitality Drive 65+, amongst other benefits, members can qualify to earn up to 50% of their annual premium back every year and get access to weekly rewards and discounts with Discovery Insure partners, by proactively managing their health, driving well and driving less than 10 000 kilometres per annum. Members joining before 30 November can receive a boost of double their annual premium payback in their first year, or up to 100% of their annual premium back.

Similarly, from Discovery Life’s perspective, Vitality’s older adult cohort can get a discount of up to 40% on their life insurance premiums in retirement, based on their Vitality engagement, enhancing the value and sustainability of their policies. In addition, Discovery Life policyholders can now access integration benefits up to the age of 75. “To account for the fact that the clients are living longer, we are extending the maximum entry age for Integration across all of our plans. This leads to a significantly enhanced value proposition at older ages, rewarding clients for managing their health and wellness into retirement”, says Discovery Life Deputy CEO, Gareth Friedlander.

Improving quality of life is top priority

Govender concludes, “As the world’s largest platform for behaviour change, with 20 million members in 24 countries, we are continuously innovating and evolving the model to give consumers more value – Vitality 65+ is a testament to this and we are excited about growing our membership and continuing to drive the creation of better health and financial outcomes for all members”