Can I get gap cover alone?
December 10, 2021
The short answer is that you cannot have gap cover alone. Medical gap cover in South Africa is tethered to medical aid membership – although the two are offered by two competely different kinds of organisations.
What is gap cover? You can think of it as a filler for your medical aid. It covers major co-payments you might have, such as for hospital stays and specialist attention.
Proper medical aid comes from registered medical schemes only. In other words, your medical aid must be from a scheme registered with the Council for Medical Schemes.
These include open schemes such as Discovery, Selfmed, Bonitas and Medihelp and also closed schemes such as GEMS and Polimed. There are dozens of registered medical schemes. Here is a list.
Medical scheme members alone can get gap cover
Once you have signed up for medical aid (comprehensive cover or hospital plan – it doesn’t matter) and paid your first premium you can apply for gap cover.
Just short-term insurers can sell gap insurance. There are many specialist gap companies including:
When you apply for a gap cover quote (such as by using the form on this page) you will be asked what medical aid your are on and which plan. For example, you might be a member of Discovery Health on the Coastal Core plan.
On that basis alone the gap cover company will give you a quote.
There are many benefits to gap cover, including the following:
- Gap cover takes effect right away
- One policy covers all the beneficiaries on your plan
- Gap cover is relatively cheap – cheaper than insuring a car
- Gap cover takes care of major co-payments on your medical aid
- You get paid in cash when your claim in successful
You are not alone wondering about gap cover. In fact, it is the top-selling South African insurance for health.
Add your details to the form on this page, then click to submit. Of course, you qualify for gap cover only if you already belong to a medical scheme
All info was correct at time of publishing