If you are considering moving medical schemes or looking to take out a medical scheme plan for the first time, you need to consider the viability of the scheme as a whole and then select the plan that best suits your needs. The health of the scheme...
Medical practitioners need to be incentivised to keep us well, rather than getting paid just when we are sick. Three weeks ago my son cut his finger badly and it needed to be professionally bandaged and assessed for stitches. I popped down to my...
As long as medical claims outstrip premiums collected, our premiums will keep rising. This year most medical scheme members will see premium increases well above inflation with the industry average hovering around 11%. Depending on your scheme...
In order to provide lower-cost medical cover, most medical schemes offer plan options where co-payments apply for certain procedures. These procedures tend to be elective surgeries such as a colonoscopy or joint replacement and are clearly defined...
A lack of young, healthy members is driving up medical scheme costs. The increases announced by medical schemes for 2016 ranged from around 8.6% to as high as 15%. If your medical scheme announced increases well above the market, it could suggest...
Themba writes: Our employer is an NGO that doesn't subsidise the medical cover of employees yet it is compulsory to have medical cover according to the employment contract, unless the employee is dependent of someone else's cover like the spouse....
A person under the age of 35 is more likely to claim for income protection or disability than death. While life cover may not be a priority, protecting your future income should be. When Greg, aged 35, was rushed to hospital after a virus attacked...
A reader wonders why her medical scheme deducted her medical expenses from her Road Accident Fund settlement. Paseka writes: I was in a car accident and was awarded around R2 million from the Road Accident Fund (RAF). I was admitted to a private...
We set ourselves a challenge to try and find medical cover for one of our readers. Our findings show that medical cover is expensive for many middle-income earners and that a comprehensive hospital plan is possibly the best option. Elizabeth has...
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), which is the regulator for medical schemes in South Africa, has initiated new processes to put more power in your hands so that you are able to take on large medical schemes. Consumers have always been able to...
South Africans need better access to good, unfettered financial advice. But who is going to pay for this? Recently I was reminded of a story of a man I had once interviewed. Twelve years ago he was severely injured in a work accident and as a result he is permanently...
Instead of overwhelming yourself with resolutions in the New Year and then falling off the bandwagon too early, let 2014 be the year in which they stick. Andrew Edwards, Executive Principal Officer of Liberty Medical Scheme and fitness expert, Lisa Raleigh, outline...
What most 40 year-olds discover is that the choices they made ten years ago are now limiting their options when it comes to retirement, risk and medical cover. When you are in your 20s, it is hard to imagine what it would be like to be 60 years old; it is...
Many medical schemes and life insurance companies offer wellness incentive programmes to their clients. Considering the monthly membership fee is usually less than R200 a month per family, it is insignificant compared to the value of the discounts offered. It is clear...
By August this year more than half of medical scheme members will have run out of day-to-day savings which means that doctor visits and medication would have to be paid for out of your own pocket. By managing your medical savings sensibly from the beginning of the...