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Medical Schemes
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24 June 2011
The best savings vehicle is a Unit Trust Based Education Fund (UTBEF), says Hubert Feris, a Financia...
19 June 2011
A proposed system of tax credits for medical scheme contributions could make scheme membership more ...
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 Home  Medical Schemes Why you should join before 35
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 Why you should join a Medical Scheme before 35
 here is legislation in place that prevents medical aid schemes from refusing to accept anyone who applies for membership, on the basis of poor health or old age. Now, in order to make things fair, medical schemes are allowed to ‘penalise’ people who wait until they are old and/or sickly before they start contributing to a medical aid scheme.
Penalties for late joiners are intended to encourage people to join a medical aid scheme early in life and to stay on a scheme continuously.
So, if you only join a medical aid scheme for the first time after your 35th birthday, here are the maximum penalties they are allowed to (by law) impose on you:
 5-9 years
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1.05 x contribution |
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10-19 years
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1.25 x contribution |
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20-29 years
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1.5 x contribution |
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30+ years
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1.75 x contribution |
So – as you can see, that means that you will pay EVEN MORE than what you might think is already costly for membership contributions! For instance: if, for example your normal contribution for Option X on Medical scheme Y is R1000 per month, you can end up paying R1750 per month, just because you joined late in life!
Medical schemes also has a right to impose:
A three month waiting period
This means that you will have to pay your monthly contributions, but for the first three
months of membership, you cannot claim from the scheme. This applies to prescribed
minimum benefits as well!
A twelve month condition-specific waiting period
This means that you will not be able to claim for expenses relating to any medical condition
that you had when you applied for membership of the scheme. This waiting period also
applies to prescribed minimum benefits.
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