It is essential to have a private medical assistance plan, but you’re still left with several critical questions. What is the right or best choice for you – a hospital plan or a medical aid membership? What about a hospital cash plan?
Regular Cost Increases are a Certainty
The first thing to remember is that medical care and in-hospital procedures are expensive and can be guaranteed to increase as time passes, usually at least annually, while the price of medicines increases as and when the manufacturers or distributors decide to hike costs. It’s a certainty.
Can You Afford Hospital Charges?
There is absolutely no guarantee that your income will increase annually or keep pace with the increasing cost of medical care. It’s even less likely that your earnings will overtake the percentage by which medical costs are likely to increase. It’s therefore unlikely that you’d be able to fund an undetermined stay in a private hospital, where you’ll be charged for every procedure that’s performed – doctor’s bill, anaesthetist’s time, your stay in a ward, use of an operating theatre, and smaller items like each swab, bandage, and syringe used during the course of your treatment in hospital and, of course, medication.
First Prize
In solving this costly conundrum, your first prize, and the best solution, is a medical aid membership that covers not only your in-hospital costs, but also assists in funding out-of-hospital, day-to-day and chronic medical expenses. As always, you receive that for which you pay. Not everyone can afford fully comprehensive, all-inclusive, and virtually unlimited medical aid cover, which is why medical schemes offer a variety of solutions and options with varying benefits and monthly contributions, as we do at KeyHealth.
KeyHealth’s medical aid plans are designed to be simple and easy to comprehend. Each option caters for different statuses – singles, couples, families, and single parents. Likewise, our solutions are compiled to take care of different needs, for different budgets. Comparisons and choosing are equally straightforward. All the essential information may be quickly accessed on our web pages, as well as guidelines that alert you to factors that you should take into account. All plans include hospital cover for a range of in-hospital procedures and emergency hospitalisation. Claim limits and terms are clearly stated.
Hospital Plans
A hospital plan provides medical cost cover (depending on the plan’s stipulations) for a member who becomes an inpatient in hospital, and only then. No out-of-hospital cover or day-to-day medical expenses and benefits apply. Hospital plans are considerably less expensive than full medical aid scheme membership, but the benefits are limited to those stated, applying only to hospitalisation.
Hospital Cash Plans
These plans have no direct bearing on or benefits for medical procedures and allied services. Hospital cash plans pay out a set daily amount to claimants who are hospitalised for the duration of their stay in hospital, usually only commencing after the first few days of hospitalisation, not immediately. Funds may be used for any purpose, from school fees to feeding the family, and of course, hospital costs, at the discretion of the recipient.
However, it’s always wisest to pick the best plan that you can afford, but one that nevertheless meets your primary requirements.
