Immediate Cover Hospital Plan with No Waiting Period

In this day and age of consumerism, we expect everything to happen at the click of a button and the moment we pay for it. However, the insurance industry does not work like this. Whether you are taking on a medical aid or a cash back policy, the reality is that immediate cover on a hospital plan does not exist. Do not be fooled by false promises as some unethical brokers may advise differently. There are specific waiting periods both for a medical aid and cash back plan that is in place to protect you and other members of the scheme or clients of the insurance industry. It is important to understand how these waiting periods work and what exactly they mean.

Meaning of Waiting Period

A waiting period is simply the time span when you will not be covered by a medical aid or insurance despite paying monthly premiums during this period. Under special circumstances and in rare instances these waiting periods are waived. No amount of searching amongst policies will matter – all medical aids and insurance companies have these waiting periods in place. Call it what you may but the principle is the same – you pay while the provider will not until a specific period of time. It is not unfair. It is a policy that protects you.

Let us look at the specific waiting periods for different financial products. For a medical aid there is a 3 month general waiting period. This means that in the first 3 months you cannot claim for any medical bills despite paying your monthly contributions. If you have a pre-existing illness, which you should have declared, then you will not be covered for the aforementioned ailment for up to 12 months. Pregnancy is treated the same way despite it not being an illness and the search for a hospital plan for already pregnant women is fruitless.

With a hospital cash plan, the waiting period is between 6 to 12 months except for hospitalisation related to accidents. This means that you cannot claim for up to 12 months. Although some premium plans have shorter waiting periods like 6 months, it is important to read the fine print carefully because this does not cover pre-existing illnesses or any reason for hospitalisation that most likely started before your cover commenced.

It may seem unfair but before you start protesting, remember that it is actually meant to protect you and the provider. There are many instances where people join a medical aid or sign up for a cash plan, barely even pay a single premium before claiming, and then leave the scheme or cancel the policy immediately thereafter. It is not only the company who loses but all the loyal members who have been paying their premiums diligently for years.

No Immediate Cover

It is incorrect to broadly state that there is no immediate cover.If you have never belonged to a medical aid before, then it is true that there is no immediate cover and you will be subject to the 3 month general waiting period and 12 month exclusion period. However, if you are a medical aid member and simply moving from one plan to another then you do not have to be concerned. Your cover will not be affected at all despite changing plans or medical schemes.

However, medical aid members need to be cautious when switching between schemes. This change over needs to be carefully coordinated so that you do not resign from one scheme yet your cover has not started with the other scheme. The gap period in between means that you essentially have no medical aid cover.

With hospital cash plans, immediate cover does not exist. That is why it is important to sign up for these types of policies earlier, while you are still fit. because you never know when you will need it. All too often people sign up for these policies when they know that they will be hospitalised in the near future. Fortunately, waiting periods prevent unscrupulous individuals from carrying this out.

However, it is important to remember that some hospital cash plans have immediate cover if you are hospitalised for an accident. Hospital plans also have another type of waiting period known as the deferred period. This means that you will not be paid if you are hospitalised for less than 2 to 3 days. The period varies between different hospital cash plans but the bottom line is short stays are not covered.