Discovery MA Options

Karatemom they pretty much paid my gynae in full as he charged Discovery rates. My paed also charges discovery rates so he was paid in full but many don't . I didn't have to pay a fee when booking the bed at Panorama. Not sure about the other hospital groups though. Mediclinic offered a nice package with free bag (netcare you pay) and a free 4d scan etc.

sexyhexy - yup, you get your savings, when that is done you get an amount you need to pay (say 2000) then when you've finished that they start paying again (during that gap you are paying still send in your claims as they then deduct it from that gap payment)

Karatemum, on the Classic Priority, do you get like an x amount for savings for the whole year eg R10 000 and then everything comes from that....then when that is finished you pay an x amount yourself and after that they start paying again?

Julz - thanks, my gynae is in the discovery network so hopefully then they'd pay everything? did you have to pay the admission fee when booking your bed? Hearing aids out of savings, that's not cool. (I wouldn't laugh, hubby is partially deaf he only has 30/60 hearing in his ears). Do they cover pead's? not sure what the discovery rate is there.

Karatemom they are actually quite good with hospital costs etc but it only covers 100 of specialist bills (anaesthetist, paed, gynae etc) and many of the gynaes are contracted out and charge way more than the discover rate. Eg they may only cover +/- 3000 of the gynae deliver fee but if you have a c section some gynaes charge 8000 so you will have to pay the difference.

They are slack with other things. Eg I have to have hearing aids fitted (don't laught) and they cover it from your medical savings. On the higher plan you would have a threshold so once you reach an amount the plan kicks in again and pay which you don't have on coastal. I do know that they would never be able to fund everyones medical expenses with such a small fee so you get what you pay for.

There is another way to look at it though. The cost of coastal is very good. Mainly you want to be covered for hospital costs and so the cost is fine. We thought about moving to the higher plan but we would be paying fees mothly that we may not use so and we have a limited amount of money in our bond always that we could use to pay the shortfalls. There is also shortfall insurance which I must also take out.

Not sure about the tonsils thing as I've not had it done!
Anytime I've had to use the in hospital (birth and when my son was in with swine flu) they covered everything 100%.
We have run out of savings, but then thats because I had to have a whole stack of cardio tests earlier in the year (so you can imagine those costs!).

Julz - what have you found Coastal Saver doesn't cover? I am moving to them in Jan as work covers that plan so will cut my costs. How are they with pregnancy and birth?

Well...on Bonitas Standard you get in your day to day for the whole year an amount of something like R4700...which has to cover medicines, pathology, dentists, specialists etc And that amount is for 3 people!!!

So the doctor's visits are covered, but looking at the day to day, that is just like totally crazy.

My friend told me that on the Classic Priority that with stuff like taking out the tonsils, you have to put down a certain amount??

But I'm waiting for Discovery to phone me, then I will talk to them and find a plan that suits me.

At my work we can only choose between Discovery, Bonitas, Sizwe and Umvuzo.