To find cheap medical aid schemes in South Africa can sometimes be a very difficult and tedious process. Some cheap medical aid schemes provide more day-to-day benefits and less health care benefits while others offer more health care benefits and less day-to-day benefits.
The reason is that the government determines the price of medical plans as the price of health care becomes significantly higher each year. To provide health care for all and keep rates as low as possible, medical aid schemes provide only the basic and essential services in their medical options.
Cheap medical aid options are mostly for those who have a fairly healthy lifestyle and who makes a minimal visit to a doctor. The reason is that in spite of the monthly premium that a member of these schemes is paying an additional fee is also payable when a member visits a doctor or medical practitioner. Such doctors and medical practitioners are specially chosen while other doctors and medical practitioners are not covered by the medical aid scheme.
Fortunately for South Africans there is a wide variety of medical schemes in SA available. The result is that these schemes compete against each other in order to get as many members as possible to apply for their options.
The result is that some schemes sometimes have to cut their medical plans to the bone to offer as many benefits as possible at the lowest rates. This means that a variety of cheap medical aid schemes are available to choose from.
With this advantage some disadvantages are associated with it. Many of these cheap medical aid schemes provide poor services and claims payouts. These medical aid schemes don’t have a huge reserve, which means they are very reluctant to pay out any claim. Claims are then carefully evaluated to determine whether it is really necessary to pay out the claim. This causes a delay in the claim payout and in turn causes much frustration for their members.
The amount of benefits offered is also very basic and does not cover any type of health care service. Hospitalization coverage is limited to a certain amount per day and is only valid for a specific amount of days.
Some medical schemes only cover 100% or as little as 80% of the total claim while a medical specialists and doctors to require 200%. This low claim payout causes the member to be responsible for the difference due to the medical specialist or doctor. It most cases members find it difficult to pay the difference, which then leads to a poor credit record on the member’s credit report.
Therefore it is important to take your health care needs into consideration before you decide on which cheap medical aid scheme you want to join.