Medical Aid Schemes - Advice pls

[Megageth]

Hi Guys n Girls.

I am not enjoying my current medical aid scheme, ie paying and not getting anything back. I am with Bestmed, signed up with them when my previous employers agreed to pay 1/3. Now I need to change. I just want basic cover, a couple of visits to the Dr for antibiotics and some hospital cover for when a speeding taxi knocks me off my bike.

Anyone got a good deal going?

[TygerBS]

Dude i have a basic hospital plan with medischeme
R600 odd a month.
Good cover for hospital.

But nothing for doctors and so. But then i never go to the doctor and if i do i don't mind paying for the once off.

[Paul]

Yip best would be a hospital plan make sure they spell out what is and isn't covered and then just keep a seperate personal savings account (if you are disciplined) where you deposit like R200 a month to cover doctor/dentist visits.

That way if you hardly go to the doctor you still have access to the cash.

[Thor_23]

I am on Witbank Coalfields Medical Aid Scheme (only available to us miners :p ) this is a forced one by the company I work for which costs a Shed load of money. Otherwise I agree with Pauls approach as the best.

On a side note. some medical aids have what they refer to as a savings account. with some of them you actually get this money back when you leave the scheme if you didnt use it over the membership period. not sure which exact ones do this however......

[Paul]

On a side note. some medical aids have what they refer to as a savings account. with some of them you actually get this money back when you leave the scheme if you didnt use it over the membership period. not sure which exact ones do this however......

Careful with this, when I was on discovery I had this and each year they took 20% handling fee and then the rest was carried over, so if you didn't use it, it still cost you. Also you didn't earn interest.

Open a Capitec account and you get like 6% interest and minimal fees plus you will have access to all your money. Nedbank has an investment accounts JustInvest with 8% interest but the catch is you can only have access your money in 24hr unlike a savings which is immediate

[J_Th4ng]

Careful with this, when I was on discovery I had this and each year they took 20% handling fee and then the rest was carried over, so if you didn't use it, it still cost you. Also you didn't earn interest.

Open a Capitec account and you get like 6% interest and minimal fees plus you will have access to all your money. Nedbank has an investment accounts JustInvest with 8% interest but the catch is you can only have access your money in 24hr unlike a savings which is immediate

This is true of Discovery, they take off the top of your medical savings. I've recently moved to Momentum, their savings is truly savings, you can cash the money out if you don't use it.

Having said that, as a single man with no dependents, I'd just get a hospital plan and put cash aside for doctors bills. Make sure you get a decent hospital plan though, possibly with top up insurance to cover multiples of the medical aid rate. Especially as you are a biker (not saying that anything is gonna happen, but you know...)

When you have a family, a more comprehensive scheme is more important. You need to cover maternity, and later pediatrics. Then you want a comprehensive scheme.

Make sure you have dread disease cover too, those things are massively expensive to treat, and you never know when something like that could strike.