Discovery turned down my application

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kiepie

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Wow, so after sending my forms through beginning of last week and not hearing from Discovery, I gave them a call. After a while it came down too the fact that I was on Transmed and they don't allow any members from Transmed. The risk is too high, they say.

When I told them I'm 24 years old, they just replied, no can do.

Seriously, I don't no what to say?

P.S I've been on a medical for 24 years. I have no chronic illnesses, I last claimed from them [my old medical fund] like 3 years ago for a doctor's visit.
 
Do you have a professional qualification? (i.e. degree) Then you can opt for Profmed. They are quite good!

*edit* LOL, sorry I forgot it's you who sent me the PM :) Nevermind this post then.

IMO, having a medic fund is just a total waste of money , IF you don't have any chronic illnesses and you're still young ect. Having an extensive hospital plan (at a fraction of the cost of a whole medical plan) is then a better option.
 
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Try Essential Med. I change to them from the 1st June. I pay just over R600 for me and my son on their Preventative Care & Hospital Plan. Neither my son or I are sickly so this works for me. I am saving myself R1200 per month!!!
 
FuNkEr said:
Do you have a professional qualification? (i.e. degree) Then you can opt for Profmed. They are quite good!
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You've got mail.

Cheri_N said:
Try Essential Med. I change to them from the 1st June. I pay just over R600 for me and my son on their Preventative Care & Hospital Plan. Neither my son or I are sickly so this works for me. I am saving myself R1200 per month!!!
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Thanks, but looks like there is a few limits
Accident Hospitalisation Benefit pays medical expenses up to an amount of R125 000 per incident, per single person; and up to R250 000 per incident, per family.
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Do you have Top Up/Gap Cover. Just look into that and find out from them. Medical aid bills can go way beyond R125 000.
http://www.coverthegap.co.za/
 
Wow, first time i heard of something like this.

In other words do they also not accept customers who have never ever been on medical aid? Surely that risk is higher then if you move from Transmed?

I would ask then what they do for people with no medical aid history and apply the same processes to your application. Or alternatively move to another medical aid.
 
This sounds very odd. Sufficiently odd to make me think there has been a miscommunication somewhere. Medical schemes cannot not accept you if you are on an existing medical scheme. Same way they can't underwrite based on your health if you have been on a medical aid previously. Get back to them and ask for this in writing, then submit to Ombud.
 
FuNkEr said:
IMO, having a medic fund is just a total waste of money , IF you don't have any chronic illnesses and you're still young ect. Having an extensive hospital plan (at a fraction of the cost of a whole medical plan) is then a better option.
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That is what I used to think. Friend of mine had a hospital plan (very good one), but after an accident, his out of hospital bills climbed to over R60 000 :(
 
Doesn't sound right... I also can't see how this would be allowed. We've been on Gen-health (Basic Cover plan - not as Basic as it might sound) for 4 years now, without any hassles. They are extremely reasonable compared to most of the others, and they have decent benefits. Unlimited hospital, as well as good day to day cover, and it is NOT limited to a designated doctor etc. My son has an (expensive!) chronic illness, and they did not exclude his cover, because we've been on medical for more than 3 years prior to application. You might want to give them a try - www.gen-health.co.za
 
Nuro said:
That is what I used to think. Friend of mine had a hospital plan (very good one), but after an accident, his out of hospital bills climbed to over R60 000 :(
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Yup. I always though medical plans where a waste of cash, that was until three years ago. Between my son & my wife, they would have cost us more than R100'000 if we did not have cover.

Its about piece of mind and knowing you can get treated, and after care.

Also my boet in law discovered this in December. Wealthy but not medical aid, not even gap cover. An emergency hart op in December and he had to sell one of his houses to pay the bill!!!!
 
I phoned three times already, all have the same issue.

Just got of the phone with Momentum. Same issue there! Unbelievable! I need to wait for 3 months before joining! And I can just guess why, so they can add penalty fees! Seriously!?
 
xrapidx said:
I thought medical aids weren't allowed to deny cover?
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Closed schemes can I suppose like Profmed...but they sure do take creative license when determining who or who is not "professsional" and they do not recognise non SA issued 4 year degrees. ie. US and don't state as much on their marketing.
 
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kiepie said:
I phoned three times already, all have the same issue.

Just got of the phone with Momentum. Same issue there! Unbelievable! I need to wait for 3 months before joining! And I can just guess why, so they can add penalty fees! Seriously!?
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You'll have to join a 90 day wait period before you can claim any benefits on ANY scheme you join if you leave one scheme to join another. The exception is Prescribed Minimum Benefits and sometimes you need to prod these medical schemes with a sharp stick to get them to recognise PMBs. The late joiner penalty is usually over and above this and a seperate issue.
Ja. No fun watching your membership fees vanishing every month for 3 months.
 
Hosehead said:
You'll have to join a 90 day wait period before you can claim any benefits on ANY scheme you join if you leave one scheme to join another. The exception is Prescribed Minimum Benefits and sometimes you need to prod these medical schemes with a sharp stick to get them to recognise PMBs. The late joiner penalty is usually over and above this and a seperate issue.
Ja. No fun watching your membership fees vanishing every month for 3 months.
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No, they specifically said you can only join in Sept 2010. Then there could be another 3 months. This was specifically before joining!
 
xrapidx said:
I'm confused with what the problem with Transmed is?
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Apparently Transmed changed their plans last year making it unaffordable or something. Then all the old clients moved to Discovery. Discovery saw that as a risk, what I can understand! But surely at the age of 24 years I can't be a risk!?
 
Just got off the phone with Gen-health, spoke to Gugu... As long as you've been a member of a medical aid (including TRANSMED) for the previous two years - and you're under 35, they will not impose a waiting period. They need a membership certificate stating start and end date of membership.
 
Charene said:
What are you referring to, Xrapidx?
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Maybe he finds it odd that a medical aid would turn down a member because you come from a particular med aid? Strange... I'm sure even illegal that a med aid co. would turn you down for that reason, they're not even allowed to turn you down on medical grounds. They can impose a waiting period but not turn you down.
 
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