Bonitas Medical Aid

**keithbatkins** · 08-12-2019, 10:37

Hi Guys.
Just a 'heads up'.
Bonitas Medical Aid has changed its International Travel Insurance provider.
The 'new and improved' provider does not now provide cover for persons aged over 65 years of age.
This is effective from 01-01-2020.
I found this out when I notified them of my forthcoming hunting trip to Namibia.
Bastards !

**MSW2** · 08-12-2019, 12:27

They are all bastards. No matter the company. I discovered the worst one a number of years ago.

**Gbyleveldt** · 09-12-2019, 06:54

Originally Posted by MSW2

They are all bastards. No matter the company. I discovered the worst one a number of years ago.

Yeah, it was an shitty discovery for me as well.

**pbuitendag** · 09-12-2019, 07:06

Originally Posted by Gbyleveldt

Yeah, it was an shitty discovery for me as well.

Indeed. But everyone must discover it for themselves I suppose.

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**Samizat45** · 09-12-2019, 09:50

Once one has discovered this, what good alternatives are there in the currrrent market ?

**Toxxyc** · 09-12-2019, 11:00

If you have a degree, ProfMed. We're moving starting 2020. We're getting a full medical aid, with benefits, compared to just a hospital plan we were forced to discover at work.

**atunguyd** · 09-12-2019, 14:25

Originally Posted by Toxxyc

If you have a degree, ProfMed. We're moving starting 2020. We're getting a full medical aid, with benefits, compared to just a hospital plan we were forced to discover at work.

Profmed is not cheaper but they are a good medical aid in my experience.
Saying a degree is what you need is over simifying it. For example a BA or BCom is not going to cut it. My wife tried with her BCom and could not get in.
Even with my engineering degree I had to motivate as to how I am using my degree professionally. Ie I can't be running my own McDonald's franchise and still have a professional degree and expect to get into PPS (you need to qualify for PPS to be able to use profmed)

Also don't get your expectations that high. Profmed is more like a traditional medical aid. There is no daily savings etc... Your day to day medical cover will always cost you as there will be a limit as to how much they pay for each item or procedure. I was on their pro secure plus plan and I always dipped into my pocket on every medical expense (granted we never went to hospital where the real costs are)
They also only covered a small fraction of my glasses when I needed a pair.

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**Toxxyc** · 09-12-2019, 14:49

My wife just sent a copy of her degree, and that's it. And yes, for what I get, they're cheaper than Discovery. I'm saving about R120 or something a month, and we now have a full medical aid, with day-to-day doctor cover and everything. Discovery will pay for EVERYTHING out of my MSA so that would be gone by March already, and then pay nothing except admittance related things from there on, so it's definitely a pro.

**CorditeCrazy** · 10-12-2019, 10:16

Guys have a look at Momentum, they are much better than Discovery

**HvR** · 12-12-2019, 08:42

Just one point to watch out for Profmed are the sublimits; their documentation is very bad so it is not that obvious.

For instance one of the high mid tier plans the psychological cover was limited to less than R2500 per annum.

This actually made me go back to Discovery (without all the other vitaltiy crap) since regardless of what you can say about them they are by far the company with the clearest set of rules and freedom to use your day-to-day medical benefits and most importantly one of the few that offer unlimited hospital cover. Lots of other companies have R250k annual limits per person, which is buggerall if you land up in ER, need to have an operation and end up staying a few days in high care.

Big tip for medical aids with MSA, always check the prices between cash and claiming back yourself vs the provider doing the claim. Sometimes the difference is as much as 30% between you paying and the med aid paying; so I pay myself use the phone app to claim back en have the cash back from discovery usually within 3 days.

This is also where a good financial planner is absolute gold; took my last 2 years of medical expenses (just the claim sheet from the medical aid) to the planner and she ran it through each of the aid options with the calculation of how I have to pay, pay in and when the limits kick in.