Medical aid has a reputation for being expensive and complicated, but it may also be the only thing standing between you and financial disaster should you need health care at some point. If your employer offers a wellness program through work, this could be a great way to reduce the costs of medical aid. Obviously, not paying medical aid is cheaper if nothing happens, and you do not need health care.
If you are younger, healthier, and you are starting out in life alone, going without medical insurance may be cheaper, and you will pay medical expenses when needed. However, because you might be charged out-of-pocket, full-priced, for whatever health care you get when you do not have insurance, you may find yourself quickly drowning in medical bills. Without healthcare coverage, you might get charged a lot more for care that your plan would have covered.
Unable to afford needed medications a Because of rising prices of prescription drugs in South Africa, many prescription drugs are unbelievably expensive, especially without medical aid plans to help. Medical insurance is at the opposite end of the cost spectrum, paying you a fixed amount to be admitted to a hospital, typically limited to a maximum of between R150 000 and R300 000, which is usually insufficient given the high costs of health care. Those who are fairly healthy and not expected to be paying daily medical costs would generally find medical insurance sufficient.
That is why it is important to have a plan to cover the higher costs of unexpected medical treatment or an emergency. If you have a pre-existing condition that needs chronic management, coverage could help keep costs low. If you are older or are more likely to experience lingering medical problems that can be costly to deal with on a day-to-day basis, health care coverage might be a better choice.
Skipping regular medical treatment can ultimately prove more costly than the insurance premium, particularly if you suffer from a major health problem which is not caught in time. This may be an annoying issue if you are lucky enough to be young or in good general health, and do not need a lot more than annual checkups and flu shots. Low-cost plans for people who are in generally good health often have high deductibles in order to keep your premiums down.
That is, having some kind of medical aid, even the cheapest plan on offer, still will keep you protected against out-of-pocket medical costs, which could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if a catastrophe strikes. The easy answer is yes–unless you are in the financial position of having to foot a ten- or hundreds-of-thousand-dollar medical bills if your health takes a sudden turn for the worse. Hospital coverage pays you just a daily cash amount for as long as you are in hospital, usually much less than the hospital charge for the day, and this is without regard for any medical costs that you incur! Beware, many people who are covered with health care coverage find out on admittance that it is very unlikely their medical costs will be covered by the daily amount paid out under their hospital cash-back plan.
