The Medical Scheme and Why You Should Have One
Ensuring access to a medical scheme has proved to be a lifesaving decision for many thousands of South Africans and in countries throughout the world in which similar assistance is available. While the situation is more acute in South Africa than elsewhere, government-funded healthcare services are threatened with too many patients requiring ever costlier treatment and too little funding with which to pay for it.
Locally, the need for the private healthcare sector to treat those who are unwilling to join long queues or waiting lists, or, in a growing number of cases, whose needs are simply far too urgent to risk any avoidable delay, is now greater than ever. That said, private treatment costs are even higher and way beyond the capacity of the majority of the nation’s citizens to pay. Clearly, without some form of financial subsidy, all but the very wealthy would be left to take their chances.
That close to 9 million average citizens now have an affordable means to access private healthcare can be attributed to the 90 or so medical schemes that currently provide them with a specialised form of insurance cover. In exchange for comparatively modest monthly premiums, most, and often all, of the cost of their treatment is covered from the accumulate member contributions. Typically, they offer a choice of products tailored to match the most likely needs and disposable income of a member and their dependents.
The extent of cover offered will obviously be limited to some degree by the premium price, but a well-managed fund is designed to cover expenses many times greater than a full year’s contributions in a single claim when recovered. Families and older people are far more prone to require attention than young, single, and generally healthy members and while many medical schemes provide for the latter with inexpensive hospital plans that cover only in-patient treatments, more comprehensive cover is essential to the former.
With the goal of ensuring peace of-mind for its members, KeyHealth products focus on maximising their core benefits while maintaining affordability.
