Hospital plans can be seen as entry level medical aid plans as they are usually
the cheapest option offered by medical schemes. A hospital plan typically covers
the policy holder for low frequency, high cost medical events like hospitalization.
This makes a hospital plan insurance policy attractive to young healthy people who
don’t spend much on day-to-day healthcare. For this type of person a medical aid
hospital plan is attractive in terms of cost and cover, however as they grow older
upgrading the amount of medical cover would probably be wise.
Hospital plans have the following
benefits:
- They are more affordable than other medical aid options
- You pay for your own day-to-day medical expenses and thus have greater control
over this type of expense.
- Due to the lack of day-to-day cover, this type of plan isn’t open to as much abuse
or fraud by members. This means contributions will stay low as honest members won’t
have to make up for dishonest members.
The
disadvantages of hospital plan insurance are:
- Out-of-hospital expenses are not covered
- You may not be able to pay for day-to-day expenses if your salary can’t cover
this.
- You may need to rely on the state healthcare system if you cannot afford the necessary
day-to-day medical expenses.
- Since some hospital plans require over-night hospitalization before cover kicks
in, hospital plan members may endure longer periods of hospitalization than members
on other plans.
Although hospital plans are very attractive as far as contributions go, there are
other types of medical aid plans that fall between hospital plans and comprehensive
plans in terms of cost, are also affordable and provide greater cover than hospital
plans.
If you are still deciding which medical scheme to choose or which plan to go with,
request quotes on our system and the top medical aid brokers and medical schemes
will contact you and provide you with more information.