Medical Aid Cover

Medical aids have become an indispensable part of modern living. With the costs of medical treatment ever rising and disposable income being eaten into by all manner of extra expenses as modern life becomes more complicated, medical aids play a vital role in giving us peace of mind in the knowledge that should the unexpected happen, we will be able to afford quality medical care without going bankrupt in the process.

Medical aids can generally be divided into two main categories: hospital plans and comprehensive medical plans. Hospital plans refer to medical cover that only includes in-hospital expenses, such as surgery, ward fees and other associated treatments like x-rays and tests. Any procedures that are undertaken outside of a hospital are excluded from this type of cover. This means that the subscriber needs to foot the bill for doctors' consultations, medication, specialists, as well as for any operative procedures that occur within a doctor's surgery rather than in a hospital.

Comprehensive medical aid plans cover a continuum, from in-hospital expenses and selected outside procedures and expenses, to every single medical expense, no matter what it entails. This type of cover, while obviously desirable, can be very expensive. For this reason, companies often offer this type of medical aid cover as part of the remuneration packages offered to employees.

Like all other forms of insurance, medical aid premiums are influenced by many factors, including most significantly, the number and sizes of claims. Large scale disease and risk factors also play a role - the perfect example being the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Ordinary inflationary pressures also have an effect on the premium costs and scales of benefits.

Medical aids have, over the last decade or so, started placing increasing importance on preventative care - for an obvious reason: the more healthy their clients, the less likelihood there is of medical aid claims. For this reason most medical aid schemes include healthy lifestyle programmes with rewards for clients who adhere to them. These programmes range from gym discounts to regular screening and testing regimes. Rewards points are allocated to members, who can then redeem these points for consumer goods or discounts on products and services.

South African Medical Aid Companies