Medical Aid

[garthu]

St@te hospit@ls are horrible death-traps!!!

Tec0.... it looks like this week you and i are out for interesting debate... luv a good conversation.

We also dumped med aid years ago for multiple reasons, the biggest issue actually was the broker lied to us, we ended up with 300k in med bills...took a few years to come right.

Not going into huge detail as the wife does not like it, finds it embarrassing but the basics were she had a cancer op that went somewhat wrong. The cancer was fine but the damage left by the op was considerable. What we didnt know was to come right from that was actually a bit of a lucky draw... could go right, could go wrong. This was probably the 2 worst years of our life.

In the end she ended up in Joburg gen as we were seriously tapped out and had no choice. She had some of the best professors, it took a long time with anesthetist strikes etc all in the middle of it etc, but she got sorted out.

The private doctors who did the original cancer op that created the new problem response was..NO F""ING jokes was "shit happens". (sorry for the un-freindly family words but from a doc, it deserves its place!!)

Those doc at joburg gen gave her a life back. The logistics, the paper work, the waiting etc etc is a nightmare.... but do not under-estimate the final result either.

I have also done Pretoria Academic a few times with the kids.... i would choose either ANYTIME over the private hospital and Docs that we endured.

By the way, that same private hospital has almost KILLED my wife twice... i do not use those choice of words lightly.

[Justloadit]

For example: I pay for my own doctor visits, my own glasses and so on. I even pay for my own medicine. My medical aid is only to be used when I am down and out! See some people think a medical aid can pay for this and that

Are you aware that you can deduct from your yearly income all your medical expenses, provided that the invoices are in your name, and keep a good record, and you actually get taxed at the lower income.

I always ensure that all invoices, from doctors, dentists, chemists or any medical requirement has my name on it, and every year, I file it against my income when I do my tax.

[AmithS]

Anyone have any experience with BestMed. They seem to be the only one i can find so far without a 12 month waiting period on pregnancies.

My problem right now is that we are just just starting to come right and i hear the bills can get quiet high for pregnancies and child birth.

[tec0]

Well our local hospital is not a nice place. As we speak a friend of mine was shot over the holiday season and without any humour his foot was eaten by maggots... And he had infection and he is not getting better. They had to do an emergency operation last night!

If you would like please PM me garthu and I will clue in on where to visit and you can see for yourself. I would also inform you of things that have happened to people wile under this hospital’s care.

I am not saying that all hospitals are like that, and yes most doctors are useless I know I report them regularly! I am not proud of this but I am the reason why some of them don’t practice anymore. No joke. They played with my health, my life! So I did what I do best and that is open a world of trouble and bring it to their doorstep.

So yes in my opinion get a good doctor ask him/ her outright questions and expect answers otherwise you stand up and you leave. Also always get a second opinion and why not a third or fourth opinion if the procedure is dangerous.

My advice is if you can afford it, get a medical plan. It will only benefit you. Yes it is expensive I know it is expensive! But sometimes some things are just more important than money. Also did what I did get your medical aid to provide you with detailed information never ever listen to those advisers.

If you have questions then use E-MAIL!!!! And only E-MAIL because you have things in writing and that is so important! Yes they avoid using e-mail but I force them to use it. Yes it takes a lot of manipulation but it is possible my inbox is proof of that.

Also if you would like to know more then start here; HPCSA

[tec0]

Are you aware that you can deduct from your yearly income all your medical expenses, provided that the invoices are in your name, and keep a good record, and you actually get taxed at the lower income.

Justloadit > Would you mind explaining this in more detail for us please. It would be very helpful

[Dave A]

I think there is little doubt that some state hospitals are better than others - and at various times some of them have even been centres of excellence.

[garthu]

Sorry to hear about your buddy tec0, really not nice. Hope he comes right. Yes i generalized to much, most of the hospitals i would never want to end up in either. Some years ago i ended up in a dodgy little government hospital after a car accident and its the only place they could take me. The biggest friggin cockroach walked past me while in bed. They hadnt stitched me yet, i walked out of there!!! Got a lift home. Went to my GP the next day. Got a real bollocking but at the time decided my fate was better off not being there!

I do still say though that pretoria academic is really not a bad place. I know people have had experiences there also but so far mine have been ok. All my experiences with the local private have been terrible, not talking about service, the actual diagnosis and care. Wife was in ICU for 5 days or so cause they mis-diagnosed her, sent her home with voltaren. 2 days later ICU with pneumonia. The same hospital as the cancer story! I think all the doctors there suck! Another friend that was stabbed recently died there even though he had been OK for several hours, he died from blood loss. They hadnt treated him for hours.

I would love to name and shame the hospital, but wont! Private is really not all it is cracked up to be!

[tec0]

Still it is a real gamble at the moment. Going to some hospitals may be beneficial others... no... It is a death-trap. Even the facilities are unfit to such a degree where I would personally point out that hygiene is none existent. No working toilets, showers or baths. No clean water or bedding is provided. The food is rotten! It smells rotten.

When you enter the hallway you are overwhelmed by the stench of excrement and flies and the walls you cannot even touch. The facilities are neglected and basically unfit.

The care itself is none existent and medication goes missing and or is never administered. This is the care we as tax payers are paying for!

People think you have a medical plan and you can avoid all of that I say no! Go and take it all in. Imagine your child or loved one must endure all of that... It is not acceptable so why are we accepting it?

Our private hospital sucks, my drip turned into a transfusion blood was going out of my body into my medication. I phoned my doctor from my mobile and she came and it was fixed within minutes. But it still proofs that our medical system is failing.

Yes our private hospital is a bad place to be but you have a better survival chance with them then in our public hospital. I think a massif mass action mass complaint is needed to wake our government up to address these problems!

[garthu]

It is not acceptable so why are we accepting it?

This is so true. What really gets to me is the only way these places get sorted out is through private intervention, not tax money which it SHOULD BE!

Had a call from a charity the other day re Pholosong hospital. They raising funds for ventilators etc etc. Whats quite interesting is it would only take around 10 mil to make a HUGE impact there, around a 5th on what was used on some recent celebration event (cant recall exactly).

They asked me if we could donate a ventilator at around 250K, was it in our budget

Possibly the problem with medical care is you only tend to think about it or react to it when you need it. If they had that daily demonstration to sort it out, a strike etc... who knows

[Dave A]

Yes our private hospital is a bad place to be but you have a better survival chance with them then in our public hospital. I think a massif mass action mass complaint is needed to wake our government up to address these problems!

The problem there is government would interpret that as endorsement of their ultimate solution - the National Health Care Plan. And I'm far from convinced that's the solution to the abysmal state of many of our hospitals. We'd probably just end up losing the option for really good ones.

[tec0]

Well welcome to Idiocracy and yes it is a word now I have personally added it to my word dictionary so it will not show up as a spelling mistake. Money is not the problem, our government is literally partying more money away then what it will take to fix a hospital!

Yet, they cannot figure out that a strict no BS system will sort out all our hospitals within a month. I just don’t know anymore, it really seems like SAmbabwe is a reality now and I am sorry to say this but I see no point in living in this country anymore.

[Justloadit]

Justloadit > Would you mind explaining this in more detail for us please. It would be very helpful

Hi Teco,

I suggest your book keeper do this for you when you do your income tax return.

Basically, you collect your medical bills from the 1st of March to the 28th of February, ensuring that all bills have your full names and address. When you complete your income tax form, the value of your medical bills is then subtracted from your total earnings. The tax is then calculated on this amount. There is a limit to the maximum amount you pay. If you are retired, then there is no maximum you can claim. I do not the exact details, but I have been getting my auditor to do this for years now. Very few people actually realize that this is legal. In most cases, SARS has requested copies from me of the invoices that are being claimed, so ensure that you meet the criteria.

[SilverNodashi]

Hi Guys & Gals,

Just a quick 1 before my real question, if my memory serves me right didnt we have a general section where we could ask general questions? I know this is a business forum but we have some highly intellegent people with real good advise here

My question is about medical aid. My wife and i are planning a child. I have always been on medical aid until the last 14 months due to financial difficulty as i started my own business.

I hear there are some medical aids that have waiting periods of 12 months for pregnancy and child births and some 3 months ?

Any one with any advise ?

Thanks guys

I was in the same boat as you a year ago and can definitely recommend Medihelp for this!

We signed up with another provider in January (I also work for myself, and cancelled Discovery 4 years ago since we don't actually use it and I don't support fraudulent companies), but they gave us some real bad service. After I signed up with them, I didn't hear anything back for 2 week - at which point I phoned them to find out if they actually accepted us as clients since they money went off my account. Their response was something like "Yes you were accepted but we had problems with email so no notification went out". wow.... They didn't bother sending me an SMS, fax or phone call, nor did they even bother retrying the emails as soon as the problem was resolved. 2 more weeks went by, i.e. we're in the next month and I was paying for 2 months already. We had no medical aid cards and when I had todo something at the hospital I had to pay for it out of my own pocket cause they couldn't locate our details on the system. Needless to say I cancelled.

Anyhow, so we joined Medihelp on the Necesse plan. About 2 / 3 weeks after that my wife went in for her checkup with the GP (yes, she had to wait 3 months for this) and he said she's feeling a bit ill cause she's pregnant! He estimated her @ 4 - 6 weeks at that time. We didn't plan for this and was actually hoping for round about June or so. Anyhow, we phoned up Medihelp who said we needed to get a sonar to see if she is indeed pregnant and how long. They paid for it. We got the sonar, I think she was 8 weeks already. They said no problem, we'll still cover you.

Our baby girl, Katinka was born on the 12th November 2010 in Arwyp Hospital, Medical aid paid in full.

[Justloadit]

When changing medical aids, the new medical aid will accept you with out a waiting period. In my case I had no medical aid, but medical insurance, they went belly up 2 years ago, so I had no cover. When I joined Discovery, I could not claim anything for the first 3 months, and had to wait a considerable time if I had anything chronic. The reason, was that I had no medical aid before, and could be a chancer by joining Discovery to carry any chronic diseases. It is 2 years later, and must say that I am not at all impressed, there never seems to be enough cover when we wish to use the card.

[tec0]

Well the problem is not the medical aid. I think of a medical aid as a hidden tax much like I think labour brokers are a hidden tax. If systems functioned normally there would be no need for a medical aid or labour brokers.

For example let’s say we don’t use the lottery money for big expensive parties but rather use it to maintain hospitals and educate staff members to preform better, would I still need a medical aid. No I would be able to use a paid for "via taxes" state hospital. And the best care in the world.

Like labour brokers, medical aids are symptom and not a solution. We effectively are paying double for our healthcare systems? Thus more money gets used for what reason exactly? Mismanagement?

The trick is, we have a successful profitable lottery system, clearly we have lots of money tanks to tax payers and yet all we see is more degradation? How can that possibly be? Clearly something is not functioning and that needs to change.

Sadly change will not come about via talking and speeches, no change is a feeling and every person needs to feel; "that yes now it is the time to try something new." Maybe then and only then will our healthcare improve and will crime come down from its all time high.

The truth is how many private systems can we as a people maintain? And more importantly when will they take our money and run like all those before them?