Choosing between a comprehensive medical aid plan and an entry-level hospital plan is not always as simple as it seems. It seems fairly logical that one would only require a hospital plan if you are a fit, young and healthy.
Yet, in terms of the medical cover levels of different types of medical aid plans, this may not always be the case.
Find out more about the critical differences in terms of medical cover and hospitalisation benefits below - it may end up saving you a fortune!
Comprehensive medical aid plans
Comprehensive medical cover does not come cheap, yet obviously has the major benefit of ensuring complete peace of mind in terms of medical claims, cover, hospitalisation and surgery related benefits.
Although the level of medical cover is significantly higher, you are usually also required to spend more money on a medical savings account, or MSA.
The benefit is that your level of medical cover is significantly increased once your MSA funds have been depleted, making it invaluable should you be involved in a car accident, or need to undergo major surgery.
Hospital plans
Entry-level medical aid plans, known as hospital plans, are exactly that. A hospital plans give you medical cover should you need to be hospitalised, with fewer allowances for day-to-day costs.
The drawback is that many medical aid plans have restrictive regulations, such as that you are only covered for certain major surgical procedures, or that you must spend the night in hospital for the medical procedure to be covered by the hospital plan.
If you are a young, fit adult, a hospital plan may be a very sound option in terms of cost and your minimal medical aid requirements. Yet as you get older, it would be wise to upgrade your medical cover to include additional medical benefits.
There are also a variety of medium cost, medium benefit health insurance plans that fall between hospital plans and comprehensive medical aid plans.
Contact a Selfmed medical aid consultant to establish whether a hospital plan or a comprehensive medical aid plan would suit your needs.
More on Medical Cover and Medical Aid limitations
More on Hospital Plans
