Medical aid companies receive many complaints. Often this stems from a lack of understanding of how the plan works.
Many people do not read the fine print until there is a dispute. The best bet is to study or have an independent broker explain the details of the plan to you.
That being said, there are defiantly some medical aid companies that offer better service than others.
Hellopeter is one of the most popular service barometers in South Africa. No system is perfect and there are some complaints that are unreasonable but it does provide an average. The site has been around for many years and they provide one of the better systems of comparing companies.
In their review of medical aid companies, they looked at 31 medical aid companies and only included those with 10 or more reviews.
From best to worst, out of the companies the reviewed, these were their findings:
- Genesis Medical Scheme
- CompCare Wellness Medical Scheme
- Netcare Medical Scheme
- TopMed Medical Scheme
- Camaf
- Universal Healthcare Administrators
- Momentum Health
- Discovery Health
- Fedhealth Medical Scheme
- Polmed
For more insight into these findings, you can visit them on hellopeter.com and search by company or the medical aid industry.
Another great source of information is the South African Consumer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi). This shows customer satisfaction for medical aid schemes in South Africa.
It is run by research firm Consulta and they are now in their fifth year. The used a random sample of 1757 consumers to arrive at their findings. Their most recent survey (2017) showed the top five schemes to be:
- Discovery
- Bonitas
- Medihelp
- Momentum
- GEMS.
As you will note, there is some overlap and also a number of discrepancies. Again, one has to do a bit of homework in order to establish what medical aid will best suit your requirements and your budget.