Medical Aid in South Africa

What is medical aid?

Medical aid is a form of health insurance. To receive medical cover for treatment, a person is required to pay monthly contribution to the company offering the scheme. This contribution is technically referred to as a premium.

Medical Aid in South Africa

Medical aid in South Africa is governed by the Medical schemes Act. The Act regulates every medical aid scheme in the country.

In addition, the medical cover received by a person depends on the company the person has chosen.

Besides receiving medical cover, the companies also offer a variety of medical plans which come with some benefits. An example of such benefits is receiving treatment in hospital and providing of medical cover for chronic diseases.

Medical Aid Companies in South Africa

Currently, there are over 25 medical aid schemes in South Africa offered by different companies. The choice for a specific medical scheme depends on the monthly premium to be paid and the extent of medical cover they provide.

Below is a list of some of medical aid companies in South Africa

1. Discovery Medical aid

Discovery Medical Aid company is the biggest medical aid scheme in South Africa and has dominated the industry for decades. It is a highly innovative company with very good global credit ratings. It has over 2 million members.

This company has a variety of hospital plans and has recently introduced new concepts such as allowing a customer to have the freedom to upgrade or downgrade from one medical plan to another.

2. Bonitas Medical Aid

Bonitas Medical Aid is another company that has over 250,000 members. It also has a variety of convenient medical plans that it offers. An example of those plans is the Bonitas Bonsave option which has features like allowing unlimited hospitalization cover of a customer at 150% of the Bonitas rate.

In addition, this option also comes as a package with comprehensive maternity and dental benefits. Other plans offered include Bonitas Standard option and Bonitas Primary Option.

3. Fedhealth Medical Aid

Fedhealth covers close to 150,00 lives in South Africa. One key difference between this company and others is that it allows the members to upgrade from one plan to another if there has been a change in the state of their health, for example, at the onset of a chronic disease.

The company offers medical plans such as the Fedhealth Flexifled 3 (Old Maxima Core), Fedhealth Flexifed 3 (Old Maxima Basic) and Fedhealth Flexifed 4 (Old Maxima Standard). Depending on which one you choose, the plans cover a variety of medical conditions and have different premium rates and benefits.

Oxygen Medical Aid

Oxygen medical aid is the fourth-largest medical scheme in South Africa with over 110,000 members covering approximately 250,000 lives.

Similar to other medical schemes, Oxygen medical aid also has a range of medical plan options that can be chosen by clients. They include; Medshield core plus, Medshield Mediplus and Medshield Medibonus.

Resolution Medical Aid

Resolution Medical aid company merged with Spectramed to form the Health Squared Company. Health Squared has over 20,000 with about 70,000 dependents.

Medical scheme plans from this company include; Health Squared Aspire Hospital Plan, Health Squared Millennium New Generation Option, and Health Squared Ultimate Traditional option each having different benefits.