Good medical scheme benefits are essential if you're ever faced with the high costs of cancer treatments. Good news is that, as long as you are on medical aid, you can upgrade to an option with better benefits at the end of each year. Healthcare advisers say you can tell whether your scheme offers good benefits by checking the following: • The overall limit on oncology; • The limits on specialised medicines; • The treatment protocols; and • Cover for reconstructive surgery. The overall limit Most medical scheme options limit oncology benefits to an annual rand amount. For example, the country's largest medical aid, Discovery Health Medical Scheme, pays a maximum of R200,000 a year per person on its cheaper Priority, Saver, Smart and Core plans, and double that for its more expensive Executive and Comprehensive plans. However, these limits have not been increased in seven years, says oncologist Dr Waldemar Szpak. Once you have exhausted these limits, benefits on all of Discovery's pl...
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