There are many more benefits to joining a medical aid scheme in South Africa than disadvantages, although there is one main disadvantage. That main disadvantage is the fact that there is often a waiting period of a few months for new members and people with pre-existing medical conditions. Unfortunately, pregnancy is one of those pre-existing conditions, so it is vital that you are aware that there are restrictions when it comes to medical aid for pregnant women in South Africa. Of course, this only applies to women that are already pregnant when they sign up to a medical aid scheme for the first time. In this article, we look in more depth at the rules concerning pregnant women and medical aid coverage, and why there are the same restrictions on them as everyone else.
As with most medical aid scheme, when you first become a member of any healthcare plan, there is a waiting period of 3 months before you can claim towards the medical costs. This waiting period is for all new members and not something that is just aimed at medical aid for pregnant women. It is future pregnancies that are covered by a medical aid scheme rather than ones that are already underway.
In the past, it was common for some medical aid companies to cover the pregnancy costs of new female members, however, some women would take advantage of this coverage, by joining a medical aid scheme when already pregnant, and then leaving the scheme after the successful delivery of their baby. Medical aid companies soon discovered that they were in fact paying out much more in medical treatment costs than they were receiving in premiums, so something had to be done. The problem with that strategy was that it was the other members of the medical aid scheme that were being impacted, and the funds which had been acquired through the years was being squandered on the unscrupulous women that were getting their pregnancy costs covered, without paying much into the scheme.
It was these unscrupulous women that forced the medical aid companies to restrict medical aid for pregnant women to the same rules as other members. Now all medical aid companies follow the same rules for pregnant women as they do for other new members and members with pre-existing medical conditions, namely, the three month waiting period.
