Why are medical schemes so expensive?

South Africans are often faced with circumstances that require medical care and private medical care is often preferred over public medical facilities. Many South Africans have access to private medical care through their medical aid schemes, which can be very costly.

 

An article by Fin24 indicates that medical aid cover is expensive as they have to provide a basic set of prescribed minimum benefits, and they are not allowed to vary contribution rates by age. This poses a problem as younger members pay more than they claim, whilst subsiding older members, who claim more. Younger members therefore either have extremely high medical aid costs or opt to not have medical cover until they are older.

 

Younger consumers without medical aid cover may be able to cover the medical cost of a minor illness such as a fever or the flu, but what will happen if they need serious medical attention, such as having to undergo an operation? They are faced with receiving public medical care, or paying for expensive private medical care out of their own pocket, which could result in debt.

 

Derek Wilson, Head of Hippo.co.za says, “One way in which people are able to save on medical aid cover, is by comparing prices and benefits from a range of South African medical aid providers before they buy or switch their medical aid provider.” Hippo.co.za offers a free to use, quick and easy medical aid comparison service, which allows consumers to view the monthly premium and medical aid benefits across a range of different providers, in order to choose the best cover for their needs, and Hippo will help put you in touch with your chosen medical aid with no commission charged by Hippo.

 

Established in 2007, hippo.co.za is South Africa’s leading comparison website that helps consumers save money by comparing a range of SA providers across financial products such as car insurance, home insurance, life insurance, medical aid and more. Hippo is free to use and saves consumers the time and hassle of shopping around for the best deal since the Hippo.co.za website instantly retrieves real-time quotes from the different providers using the latest Internet technology. At least 8 out of 10 people could save an average of R427* per month on their car insurance.

Hippo.co.za makes money by simply charging its partners a fee when a customer chooses to find out more about their products. The results consumers see, and the order in which they are presented, is in no way influenced by the fee hippo.co.za charges its partners or any other factors other than the price of the product being compared. 

 

For more information, visit us on www.hippo.co.za, connect with Hippo on LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/company/hippo-comparative-services-pty-ltd/, like us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/HippoSA, and follow us on Twitter @Hippo_co_za and YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/user/hippocompare.

 

Hippo Comparative Services (Pty) Ltd is an authorized financial services provider (FSP number: 16357).

 

*Based on a representative market research survey conducted by Kaufman Levin Associates, on behalf of Hippo.co.za in May 2014.  Risk Profile Dependent.


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