Most private medical treatment in a lot of countries needs to be funded by a medical aid scheme. If it was not for medical aid schemes, then a lot of people would not be able to get access to private medical care.
Thankfully, medical aid does not work in exactly the same way as standard health insurance. That is to say that there are no restrictions on people that already have pre-existing health problems. No one is discriminated against just because they have a chronic illness, and every one that is on the same healthcare plan pays the same premium.
It is no secret that South Africa has a serious problem with HIV and AIDS, yet even people that have already been diagnosed as HIV positive are not rejected, and they can join the same medical aid plan, and pay the same premiums as everyone else.
The one thing about affordable medical aid in South Africa is that there is a qualifying period when a person first becomes a member of an affordable medical aid scheme in South Africa. This is a period of time that is usually around 3 months, where a medical aid customer is not entitled to claim for medical expenses.
There is one difference between medical aid schemes and standard health insurance, and that is that they are not in the business of taking premiums from their members and making a profit. All the money from the premiums paid by members of a medical aid scheme goes into covering the costs of patients when they need it most. Another benefit of medical aid schemes is that a lot of them offer what is known as a Prescribed Minimum Benefit (PMB), which allows a patient to receive treatment for a wide range of chronic ailments all year long, even if they have reached their maximum benefit costs.
There are plenty of medical aid schemes in South Africa at the moment, and there are as many as 100 different companies offering healthcare plans of one type or another. Despite having a population of around 51 million people, only about a fifth of the population has medical aid coverage. This is despite the fact that medical aid coverage is more affordable than ever before with costs of monthly premiums falling due to the amount of companies offering healthcare plans.
