Many of those engaged in formal employment will be fortunate enough to have no reason to concern themselves with the finer details of performing a medical aid comparison. Their employer will have arranged assistance with their private healthcare expenses through one of South Africa’s seventy or so closed schemes. In such cases, the employee’s contractual terms may also include a contribution by the employer towards the monthly premium payments. For those who are self-employed or whose employers are not affiliated with a closed scheme, the onus is on the individual to find suitable private healthcare cover.
While closed schemes offer organisations discounted premium rates in return for the promise of bulk membership, open schemes target individuals. Consequently, prospective members should conduct a medical aid comparison to precisely determine what each plan with premiums that fall within their budget offers before signing on the dotted line. So what aspects of a scheme should one compare, and what will be the best way to compare them?
What to look for
Given the current economic circumstances, the price is likely to play a significant role in most purchase decisions. However, your health and that of your loved ones are too important to compromise just to save a few rand. Although the cost of the monthly premiums must be a consideration when making your medical aid comparison, it should not be the sole criterion upon which you base your selection.
The best starting point will be to select 3 or 4 schemes that you believe are affordable and has a stable reserve. Then you can look more closely at what each of these has to offer.
In particular, you will need to check out the benefits of each. The term refers to the various types of treatment covered and any limits that may apply to the claims for that treatment in any given period. When making your medical aid comparison, you need to be sure the benefits offered under a scheme are relevant and that these will provide adequate cover for your known needs. Also, take a look at the related terms and conditions. Make sure that you fully understand them and that you are not adversely affected by them.
Incidentally, all of a scheme’s products are now legally obliged to provide certain prescribed minimum benefits (PMB). Among these is full cover for the cost of diagnosis, treatment and care of twenty-five chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and hypertension.
How to find it
Performing a medical aid comparison has been made a lot easier since the advent of the internet. All schemes now have a website where prospective members will find details of each of the products they offer. Typically, there will be a choice of five or six, and each will have an array of benefits consistent with the premium price. Pick out all of those you can afford and take a closer look.
That said, it should not be necessary to visit dozens of individual websites when performing your preliminary search. Instead, you could save time by visiting one of several medical aid comparison sites now operating. These sites enable you to obtain multiple quotes with a single request, so you can then use these as your starting point.
