Just like with any other kind of cover, you will need to compare medical aid quotes from several different providers before being able to make an informed decision about which plan to choose. Unlike auto or home cover plans, medical aid quotes require a great deal more specific and personal information before the quote can be generated. You will not find independent web sites offering instant quotes. What you will find are automated forms on the different provider websites that will take your information and then an agent will call you to complete the application before any medical aid quotes are issued.

Medical aid quotes are a result of a process called underwriting. An underwriter looks at your past medical history, current health habits and then assesses your risk for need of medical aid. The less of a risk you represent the lower your medical quotes will be. If you have a history of chronic or dread disease and live a lifestyle that does not encourage wellness, you will see higher medical aid quotes.

Some people can find the process of submitting for medical aid quotes to be intrusive and tiresome but it is a necessary process. While you can offer receive emergency care or even long term care without medical aid cover, it is usually not the best or available when you need it. The emphasis that medical aid quotes will place on including preventative care and wellness programmes in the plans offered to you is to help you manage and control your health and to bring down costs on both sides as you will be less likely to need urgent or specialized care. A with any other kind of cover, don’t just get medical aid quotes from one company; get them from at least three. Check not only the price but the level of cover offered and whether or not the doctors and care facilities in their network are convenient to you.

Bonitas hospital plan

A Bonitas hospital plan can provide you with a time of surety that is hard to find with other medical schemes. They over five different types of Bonitas hospital plan, each structured to fulfil the needs of different segments of the population. Whether you are on a tight budget or can easily afford comprehensive cover, there will be a Bonitas hospital plan that will work for you. Providing affordable and adequate medical schemes for everyone is one of the reasons that Bonitas is the 2nd largest, and oldest, health cover provider in South Africa.

Bonitas hospital plan offers come in five categories of aid: Bo comprehensive, Bonsave, Standard, Primary and Boncap. Young people just starting out often choose Boncap. Boncap is a Bonitas medical aid options discount product that provides for preventative care and helps to alleviate the cost of day to day care which includes medication and doctor’s visits. Members can use a savings account setup with a Bonitas hospital plan to put money toward unexpected health crisis or, they can opt to purchase a gap cover if the need arises to cover the gaps in the Boncap aid.

Bonsave is the Bonitas hospital plan that is accepted in all hospital and includes the rare benefit of comprehensive maternity cover with an option for private ward care. The Bo comprehensive Bonitas hospital plan is the best choices for people managing chronic ailments or requiring frequent hospital services because it provides unlimited hospital cover, chronic pain medication cover and other benefits useful to people managing long term health conditions.

Bonitas hospital plan options also include mid and full comprehensive plans. This is ideal for families and seniors as they are the section of the population that is most in need of chronic and regular care. Bonitas hospital plan options have different levels of hospital coverage. The premium amount increases the more cover you acquire in a plan but again, if you can wisely use (and afford) acquiring a gap cover when you are in need or even purchasing a limited increase aid plan to temporarily raise the amount of benefits on your plan – you can get your health care needs met.

Medical schemes

Medical schemes are individual or group plans that act as health care insurance in South Africa. There is a broad range of products available to provide medical aid from an equally broad range of companies. Some medical schemes are more geared to providing health cover for government and private sector employees, some target businesses with group plans and others are more oriented towards the individual. Health care costs have increased greatly in South Africa over the past two decades and making sure that you can still afford the medical scheme you are enrolled in may mean re-evaluating your needs and budget each year.

An important thing to look for when trying to select from one plan from all the medical schemes is whether or not it will provide adequate coverage for your potential risk of health problems. Younger adults have different potential health risks than more senior adults. Also, a good medical scheme will have allowances and emphasis on providing benefits for preventative health care. While having a comprehensive medical scheme that can cover treatment for chronic disease, dread disease and surgeries is great – it is better to have a plan that recognizes that preventative care saves everyone money and encourages the use of the benefits to prevent illness, not just react to it..

More and more medical schemes providers are becoming less restrictive about members ability to move between plans. Some allow you to downgrade your plan at will, which can be an immense help if your income changes. Unfortunately, upgrading a plan or signing onto a new one is still restricted to set enrolment periods that may only occur once or twice a year. Also, many medical schemes use two different payment approaches. The first and standard approach is a monthly payment towards the plan, much like a premium rate on other types of insurance. The second is the use of a health savings account. These accounts allow members to save money towards future health expenses so they are not caught unprepared when they have to pay the excess on the policy.

Fedhealth medical aid

Fedhealth medical aid is one of the larger providers of health plans in South Africa. They have over 200,000 people on their rolls and continue to add more each day. One of the reasons Fedhealth medical aid is the first choice for health cover is that they are one of the few aid plans that allow members to upgrade their cover at any time. This can help if there is an onset of a chronic or serious illness. Rather than have to opt for additional gap cover, Fedhealth medical aid allow you to simply upgrade your current plan.

Fedhealth medical aid offers several plans of cover to meet the needs and budget constraints of their members. Their Maxima Basis and Maxima Standard plans offer comprehensive coverage. Under the plans, Fedhealth medical aid will pay the full cost of bills from surgeons and anaesthetists plus they provide chronic medication benefits and emergency transportation cover that include emergency airlift by helicopter.

For people who are looking to pay less and don’t foresee a need for full comprehensive cover, Fedhealth medical aid offers their Fedhealth Maxima Core plan. What makes the Maxima Core plan unique in budget offerings is that rather than offer significantly less cover than the Basis and Standard, .the benefits are comparable. The difference is that between the patient payments towards reaching the threshold level there is a gap referred to as the “self-pay” period in which the member assumes all responsibility for payments up to a pre-set amount.

Fedhealth medical aid programmes are also unique in that children may remain on your plan until they are 27 After that age, they can transfer to their own membership without any underwriting. Fedhealth medical aid also covers all extreme and professional sports and oral contraception is covered by each scheme. There are other benefits offered that are not common and a visit to their website will educate you as to why Fedhealth should be the frontrunner in your choices for medical aid providers.

Affordable medical aid

There is a broad range of products available to provide affordable medical aid from an equally broad range of companies. Some medical aid companies are more geared to providing affordable medical aid schemes for government and private sector employees, some target businesses with group plans and others are more oriented towards the individual. Health care costs have increased greatly in South Africa over the past two decades and making sure that you have an affordable medical aid plan that also provides adequate medical cover may mean re-evaluating your plan and considering new offerings from different companies.

An important thing to look for when trying to select an affordable medical aid scheme is whether or not it will provide adequate coverage for your potential risk of health problems. Younger adults have different potential health risks than more senior adults. Also, a good medical aid plan will have allowances and emphasis on providing benefits for preventative health care. While having a comprehensive medical aid plan that can cover treatment for chronic disease, dread disease and surgeries – it is better to have a plan that recognizes that preventative care saves everyone money.

More and more affordable medical aid providers are also becoming less restrictive about members ability to move between plans. Some allow you to downgrade your plan at will, which can be an immense help if your income changes. Unfortunately, upgrading a plan or signing onto a new one is still restricted to set enrolment periods that may only occur once or twice a year. Also, many affordable medical aid schemes use two different payment approaches. The first and standard approach is a monthly payment towards the plan, much like a premium rate on other types of insurance. The second is the use of a health savings account. These accounts allow members to save money towards future health expenses so they are not caught unprepared when they have to pay the up to meet the threshold on the policy.

Medihelp medical aid

Medihelp medical aid schemes are offered in a series of packages designed to meet your needs in an affordable way, but also to provide you with the best cover suited to your life. Medihelp is one of the largest providers of medical aid in South Africa. Their website is extraordinarily helpful to members and those considering enrolment in a Medihelp medical aid plan as you can review the benefit options, read the latest Medihelp news and access member services.

Each Medihelp medical aid package includes three basic components to help manage costs. There is the core component, which has a set subscription rate. There is also a saving account and savings protection plan attached to each plan to help reduce the impact of unforeseen costs to the member. A member can use the savings components to set aside money so that when in need, they have the money on hand to quickly pay to reach the threshold level so Medihelp medical aid will take over the claim. The savings protection aspect helps to make sure that the monies are applied in the most effective manner and any not used in one year are applied to the next.

Medihelp offers comprehensive hospital plans that include special programs for HIV/AIDS management and other special benefits. The main Medihelp medical aid schemes are part of their Dimensions product offerings and come as Dimensions 1, 2 or 3. The difference between the levels of cover can be found in their provisions for in hospital stays, chronic care and day-to day cover. Depending on your age and projected health risk, you may not need comprehensive medical aids, but should the need arise, Medihelp medical aid also offers gap cover so you may add additional benefits to an existing plan without committing to a new rate or having to go through the enrolment process again.

Key health medical aid

Key health medical aid offers a vast array of medical cover that come packaged in tier plans so you can pick the one that is most affordable to you and provides the cover that you need. Key health is an open medical scheme and offers services and covers to groups and individuals. They are one of only five medical aid schemes in South Africa approved to offer cover within the local government sector.

Key health medical aid also has a proprietary program that they offer to all of their members called the OneCare Specialist network. You can go online and use the network from their website to find a specialist in your area that is considered pre-approved. This saves time and stress as you do not have to go through the process of requesting approval for a specialist. As long as your network general practitioner, surgeon or another approved specialist has directed towards another type of specialist you can look, click and go without worry.

Key health medical aid plans all offer varying levels of cover for in-hospital benefits, out of hospital benefits, chronic and day to day benefits. You can start off with a low budget/low cover plan if you are young and in good health like the Key health medical aid Essence Option. As your life changes and you need increased cover, you can progress through the increasing levels from Essence to Equilibrium to Silver then Gold and finally Platinum – the most comprehensive Key health medical aid plan. You can also opt to carry their Health Booster plan, which provides for Wellness, Dental and other cover options.

Key health medical aid has a full service website where you can keep up with the latest Key health, news, read up on your benefits, access member services and find out about other programmes that Key health is involved in. As a Key health member, you can be eligible for discounts to services that promote Wellness such a gym memberships and travel discounts as well.

Genesis medical aid

Genesis medical aid provides medical schemes that are affordable to a wide range of people. Genesis medical aid works with care facilities to negotiate good terms for their members and prides themselves on their administrative efficiency because it helps to keep their operating costs down, allowing them to be able to offer members affordable and adequate cover schemes. Unlike many medical aid providers, Genesis medical aid has also placed importance on being accessible to their members and has made an effort to keep their claims forms, benefit descriptions and other services as easy to read and understand as they can.

Genesis medical aid offers three different levels of comprehensive hospital plans plus other medical aid covers. Their comprehensive hospital plans are called Private, Private Plus and Private Comprehensive. Each hospital plan is designed to provide for hospitalization for chronic, emergency and special conditions. They provide benefits for doctor and specialist visits, day to day care, out patient treatments and medication. The other medical aid plans they offer have different levels of cover from the basic to the comprehensive. Each medical plan can have a hospital plan added to it to increase the cover. You could get a basic medical aid plan but choose a comprehensive hospital cover. Members do this if they would not need the comprehensive medical plan that will include a focus on wellness but do need a comprehensive hospital plan as they are managing a chronic illness or, due to age, have an increased likelihood of hospitalization.

Many younger members who are in good health opt out of picking up a Genesis medical aid hospital plan as their likelihood of needing it will be low. This allows them to select a lower cost, basic Genesis medical aid plan that still allows them adequate cover. Genesis medical aid hospital plans can be added to existing cover as a form of gap cover should a need for them arises.