How to Sign Up for Medical Aid
It is of utmost importance in South Africa to have a good medical aid – in fact without one, you could find yourself in deep waters, financially and health-wise. With the high accident and sickness rates in this country, you could suddenly be involved in an accident or find yourself forking out a lot of money should you suddenly become ill and need hospitalisation. Here we will look at how to sign up for medical aid.
South Africa has both public and private health care facilities. There are millions of people who do not have money to pay for medical aid. If you can afford medical cover, you will benefit from enjoying private hospital assistance from top professionals in the medical business.
Save yourself from a financially crippling situation
You should never think that sudden sickness or accidents will never happen to you. Don’t spend your hard-earned money without considering medical cover, even more so if you have a family. At least have peace of mind knowing that if an unfortunate illness or accident occurs, you did the responsible thing.
First research what you want – How to Sign Up for Medical Aid
Don’t just sign up with the first medical aid that comes to mind. Do a bit of research about different options available to you in South Africa. Don’t think that just going for the cheapest one will be the best choice or even for that matter going for the most expensive one. They all require research to see what suits you and your family’s needs the most according to your pocket.What options are available for you?
In South Africa, you will find a variety of options to cover your medical health. There are:
- Comprehensive plans
- Hospital plans
- Hospital plans that have medical savings
- Network options
Options – How to Sign Up for Medical Aid
The Comprehensive Plans will offer you good cover for just about all your medical costs and include day-to-day expenses as well as expenses for when you are in a hospital. The Hospital Plans are quite a bit cheaper than the than the comprehensive plans. Most medical aids offer a hospital plan, but they will only cover the cost of your stay in a hospital.
The Hospital Plans that have Medical Savings are like the hospital plan above, but they also have savings account included which you as a member will contribute to. In a year the savings go towards your day-to-day medical expenses. But once these funds are exhausted, you would pay out of your pocket. So the Network Options will cover your day-to-day expenses at certain network providers that your chosen medical aid will provide to you. These will be at specific cheaper rates if you use the doctors and health services that are on the network.
Also, all medical aids in South Africa have an open door entry policy, so none of them will turn down your application. But on joining you might have to comply to:
- Three-month waiting period
- 12 month conditional waiting period for a waiting period for Prescribed Minimum Benefits or PMB’s
- Penalty for joining late (LJP)
Start investigating today, and join a medical aid of your choice – you cannot afford not to!
All info was correct at time of publishing