The Reality of Private Health Costs
November 26, 2024
There are only a handful of South Africans who can afford to pay private health costs from their own pockets.
The vast majority of the population uses private health care. That’s the place that has overworked doctors and where there is often a lack of equipment and medicines.
Private health care is the way to go. Although it seems many of the private doctors in the country are greedy, sending up private health costs.
The regulatory price moves by the Department of Health and the Competition Commission show that the private health care industry is overpriced. That’s because it is making decent health care unaffordable to most citizens.
Apply NOW for one FREE medical gap cover quote by completing and sending the form on this page. Medical aid members only
Private Health Care Prices above Inflation
Price increases in the private health care industry are above inflation in the private health care sector. Specialists charge what tariffs they like.
It is this overcharging that has led South Africans to the perception that doctors are greedy. Discovery Health has done research, and there are indications that most specialists charge fees at NHRPL rates, but there are those who charge more than 300%.
There are many medical professionals who in fact charge 4x the relevant tariff.
Medical aid members don’t know this, and they believe that their scheme will meet all their expenses, but the truth is that this isn’t the case.
Protection for Those Unexpected Medical Expenses
Most South Africans believe that their medical aid will cover them for all their medical expenses.
And they are thrown right off balance when they receive unexpected medical bills.
They fully believed their medical aid covered them. Even with a good medical aid, you need gap cover to close this gap between what your medical aid pays and what many of the healthcare providers are charging.
Without this medical gap cover, you are totally liable to pay for these unexpected, extra costs.
You’re not likely to get any sympathy from the medical plan provider. That’s because medical scheme benefits are limited to Medical Scheme Tariffs (MST). And doctors can charge far more than MST doctors. That is what is causing this shortfall.
Supplementing Your Medical Cover for Private Health Costs
Liberty Health is aware that health is our greatest asset. And they have stepped in to offer this much needed gap cover which will protect their clients from these unexpected and exorbitant private health costs.
Medical gap cover is a supplementary medical cover. Gap cover isn’t part of your medical scheme and isn’t subject to the same laws. Gap cover falls under the Short-term Insurance Act.
Liberty medical gap cover provides cover to the policy holder and their dependents. Other benefits added to the gap cover policy include oncology co-payments and general co-payment benefits.
People like Liberty’s gap cover because unlimited dependents get cover, it offers in-hospital treatments for dentistry, a comprehensive list of outpatient procedures and there is no 12 month pre-existing condition waiver.
Paving the Way to Make Medical Care Affordable
The goal of Liberty Health is simply to make affordable health care available to you and your whole family.
Liberty keep ahead of changing medical trends, and as medical care gets more and more expensive and out of reach, they offer gap cover solutions which close all those gaps between your medical specialists and MST.
Apply NOW for your own medical gap cover quote by completing and sending the form on this page. Medical aid members only
All info was correct at time of publishing