Good health care doesn’t come cheap and so you have to be prepared. If you consider the future of your health care before you need to, when something does go wrong you won’t have to panic. What you don’t want to happen is that you suddenly fall ill or have an accident and end up having to make do with poorly qualified staff and equipment that is decades old. Clearly, to improve your chances of making a full recovery quickly, you need to have access to private health care, because more money goes into the system and so the treatment you receive is better.
It is particularly important to be prepared for every eventuality when you have children to worry about, since children are always coming down with coughs and colds or falling down and breaking limbs. If you have to take regular trips to your doctor or local hospital, the bills will soon pile up and you may have difficulty keeping on top of your finances. By getting yourself a medical aid plan, you won’t have to worry about every single bill or cost, because all of the expenses will come from the contributions you have made in the past.
You therefore need to look for a suitable plan as soon as possible to ensure that if a time comes when you or one of your family members needs medical treatment, you won’t be scrambling around trying to get a loan to ensure you get a decent standard of care. Before you get yourself a plan, you need to think about the level of coverage you are likely to need. If poor health runs in your family or you have a dangerous job, it obviously makes sense to pay more into a medical aid scheme, so that you are fully covered.
If you lead a healthy lifestyle and don’t have any diseases or conditions that run in the family, you might not see the point in getting the most expensive plan, especially if you’re single. It is usually when you have children that your health becomes more of a priority, because you don’t want to die and leave your children without a parent. Even if you don’t have a family it is always worth getting yourself a medical aid plan when you’re young, as if you wait until you’re older you will end up having to pay more each month.
Medical aids are a popular way of funding medical care in South Africa, because the alternatives are not very good. You either have to rely on the poor-quality care on offer in state institutions or otherwise get into debt to try to fund a decent standard of care. It is therefore better to think ahead and find a medical aid plan which gives you all the coverage you require, so that instead of worrying about your financial situation when you’re ill; you can concentrate on getting better, so that you can get back to your normal life. Medical aid offers you the chance to do this.
Medical bills can come at you from a lot of places.
• An accident not covered by other insurance:
While many accidents are covered by job, vehicle or building related policies, accidents you have at home are generally your problem.
• Kids:
If you have a family, chances are you will have kids, and kids cost money. Maternity costs, neo-natal exams, ongoing care, all adds up.
• Kids:
They don’t stop costing you money after they stop being babies. Broken bones, childhood diseases, corrective surgeries and therapy are just some of the child related medical bills that might be in your future.
• Serious illnesses:
Heart disease, cancer and others serious conditions can hit any family, without warning. And the bills for treatment are out of this world.
• Geriatric conditions:
As we get older, we are prone to a wide range of disorders. Arthritis, osteoporosis, kidney and liver problems, and a susceptibility for ordinary illnesses that the younger population seems to shrug off.
Paying for these problems is a problem in itself. Public health care can help, but for many families, closing the gap between what is offered for free and what you really need can be a daunting proposition.
Medical aids exist to help those in South Africa to cope with just this problem. While some are fortunate to get medical aid through their jobs, for most South Africans, these closed job specific schemes are not available. These people must look to the many open schemes offered by medical aid providers.
• What do these schemes offer?
o Government Mandated Minimums: The South African government has set down a list of conditions that are to be fully covered by any open medial aids plan. These include:
Injuries and emergency care.
Hospital care.
Drug therapy.
Treatment of many of the more common chronic illnesses.
While most plans live up to these requirements, some fall short in various areas, making the patient pay for treatments that should be covered. Make sure that the scheme you are considering has a good track record for full coverage of the required minimums.
o Various levels of care for conditions not covered elsewhere.
Comprehensive Care: Many schemes cover every aspect of your health care, from annual checkups and routine prescriptions to chemotherapy and emergency surgery. These plans are incredibly valuable, especially for families that are facing chronic illnesses or long term care due to injuries or a medical condition. But they are also quite expensive, and can be outside the range of many family’s income levels.
Selective care: These plans generally focus on the large, budget busting issues such as hospital stays, serious illnesses and the like. They leave the routine stuff to the family. Since the odds of any given family experiencing cancer, heart disease or a serious injury are less than them getting treatment for influenza, a broken bone or other non-life threatening conditions, the chances of the providers having to pay out are reduced. The less the risk, the less they charge. This can make these selective plans a way for families to get the health care to cover the serious matters, while depending on savings and public health care for the rest
For more information, go to Medical Aid Quotes
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