The Pros and Cons of Hospital Plans

In order to achieve more affordable medical aid some medical aid schemes have come up with hospital plans. But there are pros and cons of hospital plans. Let’s deal with them.

Note: These plans will save you money but will limit the health care you receive to in-hospital treatment.

Pros and Cons of Hospital Plans – What is a hospital plan?

A hospital plan is a form medical aid; the snag here though is it only pays for your medical cover while you are in hospital, when you are out of hospital you have to pay for the medical cover out of your pocket.

Pros and Cons of Hospital Plans – The pros of hospital cover:

• You will have cover for any treatment in hospital.
• The Medical Schemes Act requires medical schemes to provide treatment for the list of 270 prescribed minimum benefit conditions as well as the 25 chronic conditions listed in the chronic conditions list.
• Hospital plans have to pay for life threatening emergency medical conditions.
• Some medical schemes include a limited savings account to assist you with some of your day to day medical costs.

 

Pros and Cons of Hospital Plans – The cons of hospital plans:

• In most cases you are only covered for in-hospital treatment.
• The treatment is capped at scheme rates and you might be required to pay in the difference.
• Some hospital options have annual limits, should you surpass these limits you are required to pay any additional hospital costs yourself.• You might be required to only use a specific set of network hospitals.
• In some cases co-payments might be required.

 

Who should consider getting hospital cover?

• People of good financial standing that can afford to pay day to day medical costs from their pockets.
• Young and healthy persons that only need hospital cover in case of an emergency.
• Persons with limited financial needs, the hospital option can cover you in case of hospitalization and you can make use of the clinic system the government health provides.

 

Are there any possible alternatives to hospital plans?

• Your best option as an alternative to a hospital options is to consider a network option.
• The network option might be cheaper, but will limit you to network service providers.
• With a network option you will receive day to day cover as well.

 

As with all medical aid options it is important that you do your homework when you consider hospital cover, make sure you understand the benefits, annual limits, scheme rates, rules and the cover you receive before you purchase any medical insurance. A

lso choose a scheme where it is possible to upgrade to a bigger plan any time of the year, this will allow you to have additional medical aid plans available should you suddenly need more extensive medical cover.

Even though hospital plans might be a cheaper alternative it may not always the better option, choose medical cover based on your medical needs and what you can afford.

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All info was correct at time of publishing