It is important to understand how waiting periods work, particularly for maternity and chronic diseases. All medical schemes apply waiting periods for new members. This means that the medical aid member cannot claim for a specified period of time. However, there are...
You may have heard about health insurance, previously known as hospital insurance. At face value these products appear to be similar to medical aid except for a significant price difference. However, health insurance or hospital insurance is not medical aid and vice...
A late joiner penalty is a fee that a medical aid in South Africa levies for new members who join the scheme after 35 years of age. While South African medical schemes have an open policy for members younger than 35 years, the situation changes as you get older. By...
Doctors have always tried to help patients with their medical costs particularly when it came to inadequate cover in the form of lower plan medical aids. One such instance is when it came to expensive diagnostic procedures like a CT scan (computed tomography), MRI...
There are several reasons why a medical aid may pay the member directly and not the doctor. If the member is paid by the scheme, it is their duty as a patient to ensure that the doctor is settled in full. It is important to remember that when you have medical aid, the...
Most of us focus on the extremely high cost of medical care within hospital. While these medical bills can be exorbitant, especially if you need major surgery, another very costly aspect of medical care is for the treatment and management of chronic diseases. When...
There are instances where children may need to be on a medical aid on their own, without parents or other adult members. This is often seen in divorce where the person paying maintenance, usually the father, wants to cover their child or children but not their ex...
If you are already pregnant and need medical aid that will cover your existing pregnancy then you need to be aware of some of the facts. First let us look at a common practice among South African consumers. We all buy insurance before we need it. Car insurance before...
Hospital cover in South Africa can mean one of two things. You are either talking about a medical aid plan that only has hospital cover and not day-to-day benefits. Or you are looking at an insurance policy that pays cash when you are in hospital. Both these financial...
