If you were in the market for a new car, you would be unlikely to pop into the nearest showroom and opt for the model with the lowest price tag. Instead, you would first consider which vehicle might best fulfil your needs and those of your family before choosing the best one you could comfortably afford. If, at some time, you should find it necessary to perform a medical aid comparison, you would be well advised to adopt the same selection criteria. While you will be unable to experience the benefit of a test drive, ensuring that the product you select will fully meet everyone’s known and anticipated needs should be your prime objective.
One cannot place a price on good health or especially on a life. While there may be a limit to how much you can pay for the monthly premiums, you should aim to invest the maximum you can afford rather than attempting to economise on this vital protection for your family’s health. Therefore, when making a medical aid comparison, you should not base this critical decision on prices but on the benefits each product has to offer and their relevance to your family.
In this context, “benefits” refers to a list of medical and surgical treatments and procedures for which a scheme agrees to cover the related costs. They may cover those costs in full or limit your claim to a stated percentage of the total figure, which will depend on the service provider. Other conditions may set an annual and possibly an individual limit on the value of claims for a given contingency. These are the details that will require your scrutiny when conducting a medical aid comparison. Also, some schemes tend to be less forthcoming than others when providing such information, and a closer look at the small print in their Terms and Conditions might be necessary.
Some conditions are universal and relate to the break between any previous cover and the current application. All new members must wait three months before submitting their first claim and up to a year before claiming for a pre-existing condition. However, the Medical Schemes Act of 1998 obliges all schemes to provide certain prescribed minimum benefits, including support for 26 chronic illnesses. So, these should not influence your medical aid comparison.
In practice, the ideal option for a family will invariably be a product that offers comprehensive year-round cover. That said, single individuals and young married couples with good general health and sufficient income to pay for the odd visit to their GP and some antibiotics or painkillers might opt for a hospital plan. Because it only covers their healthcare expenses whilst hospitalised, the monthly premiums will be markedly lower. Nevertheless, when choosing this option, it is equally essential to conduct a medical aid comparison.
Often, the best way to identify a reliable service is to look more closely at the relevant service provider. Because they are non-profit companies, medical schemes must maintain adequate cash reserves to meet their claims promptly and survive. With a record 53 years of providing financial support towards the private healthcare costs of South Africans, Medshield and our competitively priced, innovative products emerge as established leaders based on any medical aid comparison criteria. Contact us to find out about our range of options.
