How old are you, are you full time employed, do you work for yourself, do you have a family, what is the state of your health and that of your family, are you affected by any lifestyle diseases, what is your lifestyle, where do you live and work? Every one of these and more questions need to be answered in considering a health plan.
So, then, just what is a health plan? The word plan indicates that there generally is a problem or an observed problem to be overcome in the management of your health necessitating different interventions or that it could be a straightforward action of a medical aid membership. This selection will be relying on the answers to the above questions that will produce different scenarios for different people. If you are youthful and full-time employed you in all probability will have no choice but to join the medical aid plan as recommended by your employer, where you will pay 50% of the contribution and the company 50%. As you are still young, you probably won't have any underlying disease that will require greater action than joining a medical aid plan. If you are full-time employed but your company doesn't provide you with the advantage of a medical scheme nor makes a contribution to any monthly payments, you have two basic choices: You might join a medical aid scheme of your choosing, and select the correct option for your situation, should you are able to afford the premium, or you could elect to sign up to a cheaper hospital plan since you're young and possibly don't need the additional advantages of a full blown medical aid scheme. Should the last option not be economical you could look at a hospital cash back plan that will pay you from R1000 to R5000 a day spent in hospital for periods over 3 days.
If you're married with a family and you work for yourself as a small business operator, your health plan could be different. Your income level and the health condition of your family become essential selection considerations in the selection of the best health plan. You may have just started your organization and cash is a scarce commodity at this time, but luckily yourself and your family enjoy sound health. The less costly plan for you would be a hospital plan. Such approach will pay all costs for you and your loved ones when hospitalised. There are many options within such plan, which makes it more or less affordable. In case you select the most inexpensive plan, it might put constrictions on pay out amounts. Should such amounts appear too low, you might take out cheap 'gap' insurance that will pay out the difference between the bill amount and the actual pay out. So, you can build-up your own acceptable health plan.
Should you be retired and left without any medical aid system, you could decide to remain a member but you will be forced to foot the whole bill. If it is reasonable, carry on. If it is not reasonably priced you could look for a less costly option within the same scheme or another plan. If that doesn't solve the situation, look at a hospital plan that suits your expectations.
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