Fit as a fiddle farmer hits back about gym rebates

Johannes van den Berg writes:With reference to the WhatsApp in the Republikein of 6 July 2017 referring to an earlier letter from me which was published in the Republikein of 5 July 2017. I would like to respond as follows and I have to do it via the newspapers because whoever submitted the WhatsApp message did not provide his/her name or contact details to enable me to contact them directly.1) I am not afraid to use my name when going public on an issue.2) It is clear that whoever submitted the WhatsApp is totally ignorant on what is really happening with regards to gym rebates.3) I have provided a copy of an email to the newspaper which show that NAMAF (Namibia Association of Medical Aid Funds) had obtained a legal opinion with regards to the legality of the allowance of gym rebates. The legal opinion was very clear and it state that it is definitely illegal and it should stop immediately. The lawyers even went as far as to request that the funds should immediately take action to ensure that the fund rules and operations of the fund are in line with the Medical Aid Fund Act. Unfortunately the copy of the email was never published and I thus request the newspaper to publish it, or is it only in South Africa where the news media has the guts to publish copy of emails such as the leaked Gupta emails.4) I do not hate people because they are getting gym rebates, I hate dishonest people that benefit from illegal activities. In Afrikaans there is a saying "die deler is so goed soos die steler". Fact of the matter is that only some members of the medical aid funds benefit from the gym rebates and most of the members must "sponsor" this because they either choose to live a healthy lifestyle and exercise by jogging, riding a bicycle, etc. It is not only by exercising in a gym that one could achieve an improvement in your health status.5) Because I live on a farm and there is no gym within 200 km of the farm, I am penalised because unlike the writer of the WhatsApp, who probably has a cosy job in Windhoek, I cannot go to a gym to exercise.6) Let me inform you that I, at the age of 65, am living a healthy lifestyle. Every morning at six I run 7.8 km before my workday start and during the day I probably walk another 5-10 km. Without boasting, I had completed 10 Comrades marathons in my life. Furthermore in the whole of my life I was only hospitalised three time, at the age of 9 months to have my tonsils removed (1 day in hospital), at the age of 18 when I was hospitalised for three days after I was shot during an ambush in Northern Namibia while doing National Service and a couple of years ago I had a kidney stone removed and was in hospital for 2 days. I do not use any chronic medicines and visit a doctor yearly for a check-up. Is it the exercise that helped that my health costs were fairly low, my genes? I do not know. 7) Despite my fairly healthy life style and the fact that the medical aid fund had made a lot of profit on me, these facts are not recognised by the medical aid fund. . . I can only benefit if I go to the gym on a regular basis.8) The writer's reference to scientific proof ("like a longggggg time ago") of the benefits of going to a gym compared to walking down the street is non-existent and I would like the writer to submit proof that by exercising in a gym, the benefits are more that exercising at home. Maybe the writer must provide us his/her medical claims for the past 10 years that everyone can see that by going to the gym he/she has lower their medical claims.9) I do not question the writer's statement that even from light exercise one can benefit in the long run, but why do people that exercise on a regular basis at home, or jogging, or riding a bicycle do not receive the same benefits as someone that goes to the gym, and as I stated in an earlier letter, like my son that goes to the gym to meet people at the juice bar and to conduct business? Every time he swipes his card without doing any exercise he gets a refund of more than N$300 per month!Thus in summary, Sir/Madam, in my books your are participating in an illegal activity, you are benefitting from an illegal activity and in terms of the laws of our country, you and everyone else including the medical aid funds should be charged for this illegal activities. Until such time that the laws of Namibia declare that the giving of gym rebates is allowed, it will remain illegal and as stated before, no-one can hide behind declaring ignorance of the laws as a reason (like NAMFISA who stated it is against the law but can continue until the end of 2018).I believe a few years ago one could get a discount at the gym of up to 30% for being a member of a medical aid fund (nothing illegal about this), however the system was changed because it cost the gymnasiums too much money and the system was then changed that the medical aid funds give refunds to members for going to the gyms. Anybody that has common sense should question the practice and maybe someone should investigate whether a few persons who now actively promote gym rebates and use the medical aid funds to pay for gym rebates, does not secretly receive some sort of kick-back or commission or other benefits from the gyms.It is clear that the public and the members of the medical aid funds at large are ignorant. Most of the members is sponsoring the "healthy gym lifestyle" of a small number of members. I had seen the draft financial statements of a fund for 2016 and they incurred a loss of N$ 16.5 million for 2016. Maybe they should tell the public how much of the loss was because of the gym rebates they paid to certain members? While you ask them with regards to the gym rebates, ask them if it is true that when a farmer joins and he remains a member, his membership fees for the NAU (Namibian Agricultural Union) is paid by the fund?Regards

Fit as a fiddle farmer hits back about gym rebates

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Republikein 2026-01-02

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Fit as a fiddle farmer hits back about gym rebates

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