Essential Medical aid

[sparticus]

With the rising cost of medical aids I am looking at alternatives to Discovery. I am currently paying R4200 which covers me , my wife and 3 kids. My daughter is asthmatic and has chronic benefits (only activated last month after a long fight) and I am also on chronic meds for my OCD.

I found Essential Med and to be honest they look very very appealing , I worked out that I would pay R1800 a month !!!! Can it be ? Is there a catch ? Their benefits are solid and in some cases better than Discovery , for example they have unlimited visits to the contracted GP which in this case is carecross and there just happen to be a carecross about 200 meters from me.


Anyone else using them ? Bad/good experience ?

 

[vash87]

Unfortunately there is a catch. Essential Medical Aid is essentially not a medical aid.. It's more along the lines of a hospital cash back plan. It's much cheaper than even a normal hospital plan (registered with the council for medical schemes).. The fundamental difference is that on essential med, they pay YOU R6500 on day 1 of hospitalisation, regardless of your hospital bills. On a standard medical aid/hospital plan, they pay YOUR BILLS which could amount to substantially more than R6500.

 

[HavocXphere]

on essential med, they pay YOU R6500 on day 1 of hospitalisation

Which will buy you perhaps 12 hours of ICU...better recover from that near fatal incident in a hurry.

 

[RiaX]

Dude has a family man with kids with chronic conditions ... DONT cut your medical budget. It can work out very costly if you make a mistake with cover.

Medical aid should be a last thing you cut budget on. Though if its really necessary then switch to a hospital plan and pay cash for chronic. If you know your doctor for a long time he/she will make a plan to help you if you pay cash (cold hard cash = no tax for him). Asthma medication can be switched to generics and cheaper options, there are generics for seretide ect. Also look into optimizing the daughter's medical treatment (you dont need the lastest most potent drug) however you need to find out how severe her asthma is.

 

[sparticus]

Dude has a family man with kids with chronic conditions ... DONT cut your medical budget. It can work out very costly if you make a mistake with cover.

Medical aid should be a last thing you cut budget on. Though if its really necessary then switch to a hospital plan and pay cash for chronic. If you know your doctor for a long time he/she will make a plan to help you if you pay cash (cold hard cash = no tax for him). Asthma medication can be switched to generics and cheaper options, there are generics for seretide ect. Also look into optimizing the daughter's medical treatment (you dont need the lastest most potent drug) however you need to find out how severe her asthma is.

Thanks for the advice. For now I think I will stick with Discovery