Insurance
INA MORGAN (nhorizon@iafrica.com)
Sat, 30 Mar 1996 00:10:36 +-200
We have in South Africa something called Medical Aid, you normally go =
onto medical aid through the company you work for. Medical Insurance is =
just coming in and is still really in infancy stage. We belong to my =
husbands medical aid, their total medical cover for a year is R36 =
000.00. Devin cost in excess of R110 000.00 before he was released from =
his NICU stay. We pleaded for an extension to our cover as in the 6 =
years previously that we belonged to the medical aid we had probably =
only used R10 000 in total. They were not interested and gave us an =
additional R2000.00 (thanks a lot).
The major portion of this bill was the hospital and I cannot believe how =
wonderful they were - it is a private hospital - and they are usually =
the most mercenary of any "big business", well they wrote off R26 =
000.00.
This has left us with R50 000.00 to pay off over 2 years. Last year we =
again exceed our medical cover and have to pay off an additional R10 =
000.00 from then and the way things are going this year we will be in =
the same position. We have now taken out additional cover but it will =
not cover hospitalisation for asthmatic problems and this is were all =
our costs are coming from.
Although, our exchange rate will show R50 000.00 (approx. R3.675 rand to =
a dollar) as not that many dollars, we earn about the same in Rand as =
you do in Dollars so you can roughly work out that we owe the equivalent =
of $60 000.00 in medical costs.
I agree with a previous message, you cannot put a price on your childs =
life and if it means that for the rest of my life, I have no money for =
myself, I will consider it money well spent. The only major downfall, =
is that there is no way I can give up work and that is what is needed, =
Devin to stay at home and not go to creche - so it is a catch 22 =
situation.