Best Medical Scheme in SA is Bonitas

A survey conducted recently to find the best medical scheme in South Africa came up with some interesting findings.

• People are only loyal to their medical aids because they want to avoid having to go to a state hospital not.
• They certainly aren’t loyal because they believe they are getting good services.
• The medical aids of South Africa don’t provide their members with any particularly good reasons to stay with them.
• Members have tried several medical aids, and found every one of them failing to match up to what they want.
• There is a very low percentage of members who will say they are satisfied with their medical aids much less that it is the best medical scheme around.

Benefits Getting Less and Less

Members are dissatisfied with their high premiums, their benefits which get less and less and the inability of the administrative section of the medical aid to resolve their problems.

Some of the large medical schemes conduct regular surveys to assess satisfaction levels among their members. By knowing how they perform against the rest of the industry, the idea is for them to come up with strategies to differentiate themselves so that they can attract and keep members.

Best Medical Scheme –  Bonitas Comes the Closest to ‘Measuring Up’

According to the latest South African Customer Satisfaction Index survey, there isn’t a medical aid which is measuring up as the best medical scheme in SA by far.

A sum of 3,297 medical aid members took part in a survey in the latter part of 2014 and it was discovered that the open Bonitas Medical Aid was seen as the best of what South Africa has to offer. Some of its good points are –

• it has been around for a while – longer than 3 decades
• it offers different plans to accommodate people from different income groups
• they have more than 4500 GPs in their network who work at set rates, so they eliminate co-payments
• their rates are very competitive
• they have a global credit rating of AA- which means they can meet the needs of their members
• they also offer some affordable entry level hospital plans which offer good cover

Some of the other medical aids that took part in the survey were Discovery Health, Medihelp, Liberty Health and Momentum Health. Professor Andre Schreuder, founder of SAcsi and CEO of Consulta Research said that some of the results from the survey show that even though Bonitas came up tops, it doesn’t mean it is satisfying its customers and meeting their expectations.

A major gripe with medical aids is their unwillingness to pay for Prescribed Minimum Benefits. The Council for Medical Schemes is there to protect the interests of members and they are currently working on the PMB issue with medical aids and their members.

Medical Aids Keep you from the Death Grip of State Hospitals

Medical schemes are not-for-profit entities. Members pay a monthly premium and in return are provided with cover for private health care services. Members say that their premiums are rising, while their benefits are getting less.

People are holding onto their membership with these medical aid, not because they believe they are getting value, but simply because they see them as a necessary evil which keeps them from having to go to a state hospital.

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All info was correct at time of publishing