No one ever plans to be admitted to hospital, with the exception of elective surgery and in-hospital medical procedures recommended by a doctor to cure or treat a medical condition. Many people adopt a head-in-the-sand attitude to unpleasant or unwanted events that life and living in a modern society throws at them.
Other Plans
Nonetheless, unfortunate events are inevitable and may happen to people we know and those whom we are close to. All too often, serious illness, accidents, and medical emergencies occur, which necessitate admission to a hospital, usually when it is least expected and completely unplanned.
Well-Intended
By now, most South Africans are fully aware that the state hospitals are under-resourced and over-burdened, unable to render the services as efficiently or effectively as would otherwise be the case had the universal free healthcare-for-all system been able to function as it was intended to do.
Sick and Ailing
The impact of the current situation means that even factors as basic and simple as the provision of sufficient hospital beds for new admissions cannot always be met. Today, in South Africa, it is not only the sick that are subject to ailments.
In the present ailing healthcare system, and without having made healthcare provisions of their own, people with ailments and patients simply have to wait for things like being seen by a doctor or specialist, hospital admission, a bed, x-rays or scans, a variety of minor or major procedures or surgery, sometimes with dire consequences because of inevitable delays.
Medical or Cash Plans
Because the terms “hospital plan” and “hospital cash plan” seem so similar, there has been a considerable degree of public misunderstanding of the two vastly different concepts, which we at Medshield would like to help you clarify.
The former refers to a registered medical aid option that offers financial assistance to foot the bill for medical conditions, treatments, and procedures which require hospitalisation and must be performed in a medical facility by professional, qualified medical practitioners and personnel.
Costs incurred during hospitalisation may be enormous, but with the financial cover and patient support function of this medical aid feature, the medical aid member (or dependants) can rest assured and recover their health, knowing that they are not liable for hospital expenses,
“Cash” indicates that those who sign up for this type of plan are to receive a cash payment per day that they are hospitalised. However, payments only commence a few days after admission, not at once, meaning that the patient will probably be required to pay a deposit upon admission to a private facility. Moreover, if the patient is discharged before receiving daily cash payments, they will be liable for all medical expenses, a potentially frightening prospect. Because this plan has nothing to do with medical matters, the cash may be used for any purpose.
Our MediCore option is the closest to a pure hospital plan, with certain procedures whilst hospitalised covered at our higher private tariff. It is very much in the interest of your health and wellbeing to have, at a minimum, this essential cover that enables you to obtain the vital medical care you need, when you need it, in a private facility.
(Terms and conditions apply).