Save on Medical Aid by Getting Medical Gap Cover
December 2, 2024
There are a lot of ways to save on medical aid, and we list all 25 we know.
Get gap cover. Don’t get a more expensive medical plan. Just add a medical gap cover insurance policy to take care of all the payment shortfalls. Significantly, some of the best companies offering gap cover are Zestlife, Sanlam, Stratum and Jenius.
Stick with your medical aid. Medical Schemes might irritate you, but you know each other. And switching medical schemes means extra costs. Change options within your scheme rather, to save on medical aid.
Stick with your spouse and kids. Get the whole family on the same medical aid plan and the same gap cover policy.
Shop around. If it’s the first time you are getting medical aid, shop around. If you belong to medical aid, shop around among the various options it offers to save on medical aid.
Chronic medication. Ask your GP if there is a generic version to replace the expensive branded variety.
Use all benefits. Whether it’s a gym membership or a voucher for your pharmacy, make sure you use it.
Get a hospital plan from a medical scheme. If you can’t afford full medical aid, at least get a hospital plan from a medical scheme. Because it’s much better than a hospital policy from an insurance company because, by law, it must cover many more treatments, conditions and medicines.
Get on the phone fast. When there is an emergency, call your medical aid to ask what you may and may not do regarding the scheme conditions for your plan.
More Ways to Save on Medical Aid
Partner with your chemist. Find a reliable, sensible and reasonably priced pharmacist, and then stick with him.
Phone your doctor (sometimes). A doctor visit is not always necessary. Your doctor does not want lots of calls but once or twice a year is fine.
Don’t write off state hospitals. Some of them are just fine. So be aware of a good one in your neighbourhood and use that where possible.
Buy simple medications in supermarkets. Vitamins, cold medicines and so on will be much cheaper than the pharmacy.
Check out generics. Generic drugs are usually the same as branded ones, except they are a lot cheaper.
Take your consumables to the hospital. You can take cotton wool, bandages, headache tablets and suchlike.
Audit your hospital bill. Don’t take any item for granted. Partner with your medical scheme for this. And they will be only too glad to help.
So those are several ways to save on medical aid. But the most important tip of all is to sign up for medical gap cover — but you can only do that if you are already a member of a registered medical scheme.
To get your FREE medical gap cover quote, please complete and send the form on this page
All info was correct at time of publishing