Getting affordable medical aid is not necessarily the cheapest medical aid plan available on the market. Spending less money per month on your medical cover may well end up costing you more during periods of sickness or hospitalisation! Therefore, the wisest choice is to pick a medical aid plan that offers the right benefits and sufficient levels of hospitalisation cover - at an acceptable price!

It pays to have medical aid.
Medical aid contributions are partially tax deductible, effectively giving you the benefit of not having to spend large amounts of money on medical expenses and saving you some money! The South African Government is hoping to make medical aid as accessible as possible to the entire population, so medical aid will probably be subject to more tax breaks in the near future.

The benefits of hospital plans
Hospital plans are perfect for tight budgets. Although these don't make major provisions for day-to-day medical expenses, they usually feature sufficient hospital cover. Knowing that your medical aid covers major procedures and hospitalisation will give you great peace of mind - without breaking the bank. Speak to a health insurance broker or to one of your medical aid's consultants should you require any cover beyond that offered by a hospital plan, as ignoring your own medical cover requirements is not wise.

Contact a Selfmed medical aid consultant for advice on how to address your health insurance needs or to obtain a free medical aid quote.

Selfmed medical aid plans
It is important that you choose a medical aid plan that suits your individual needs – in terms of both your budget and your health. You’ll find that “cost” is almost always directly proportional to the “degree of cover” when it comes to medical aid plans. The first step is thus to establish how much cover you need.

Read on for a comprehensive list of the various medical aid plans Selfmed has on offer – you are bound to find the perfect one for you! Take note that all Selfmed’s medical aid plans – from the cheapest to the most expensive – include:

• Unlimited hospitalisation cover at any South African private hospital
  
• Unlimited emergency transport and related benefits when using ER24 in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland
  
• Admittance to specialised disease management and control programmes when a member is diagnosed with a fatal condition, e.g.: Aids or cancer
  
• Option of ABSA credit card to supplement the payment of extra day-to-day medical expenses
  
• Unlimited cover with respect to gastroscopies, tonsillectomies, colonoscopies (whether member is hospitalised or not) - co-payments may apply
  
• Liberal pregnancy and birth benefits
  
• Unlimited rehabilitation, recovery and home nursing benefits

This is where the similarities end, and the choices begin!

Find out which plan is best suited to your unique requirements.

Staying healthy is still the best medicine
There is no denying the fact that some sort of health insurance is vital these days. Whether you are a healthy 25-year old or a 46-year old suffering from Aids, it is essential to sign up for a medical aid plan that suits both your health and your budget.

This is not a pleasant thought, but you could be perfectly healthy one day, and in hospital suffering from serious injuries from a car accident the next. If nothing else, a good medical aid scheme will afford you peace of mind in knowing that you will be taken care of when you need it most.

5 tips to keep you and your family healthy
While much of the following may seem obvious, you would probably agree that it is easy to forget about, or compromise on eating healthily and getting enough exercise when life gets hectic – and when isn’t it? The truth of the matter is that you are never going to have enough time to fit everything in; these days, it is essential to prioritise.

To make things a little easier for you, we hereby include five things that you should not compromise on:

1. Make sure you get your 8 hours’ sleep
Sleep is the body’s way of recovering from today and restoring itself for tomorrow. Research shows that the average person needs 8 hours’ sleep every night in order to be fully refreshed for the day that lies ahead. Make sure your bedroom is quiet, well ventilated, and get enough sleep!

2. Watch what you eat, and drink lots of water

• It is better to eat four to five smaller meals, instead of three big meals per day
  
• Eat at least five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables every day
  
• Small dietary adjustments go a long way: eat brown bread instead of white; drink low-fat milk instead of full-cream milk
  
• Buy lean cuts of meat and prepare it in a healthy way
  
• Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day
  
• Consume alcohol, caffeine and fast-food in moderation

3. Get some exercise!
It is a fact that exercise makes you look younger, fitter and thinner. It releases endorphins that make you feel great, and it improves your chances against a range of nasty diseases. Amongst many other benefits, exercise:

• Encourages weight loss
  
• Is good for your heart
  
• Combats stress
  
• Promotes better sleeping patterns
  
• Improves circulation of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body and thus slows the aging process
  
• Reduces the risk of stroke, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, influenza, etc.
  
• Promotes brain health

4. Make that appointment
It is important to go for regular medical checkups, in order to ensure that you stay healthy. Thanks to modern medical technology, most conditions and diseases are easily treated if they are detected early on. Whether it’s the doctor or the dentist, the physiotherapist or the psychologist – make that appointment today!

5. Take time to relax
Watching television, reading the newspaper or even sleeping is not necessarily relaxing. It is important to set aside some “you time” every day, it doesn’t matter how busy you are. Whether it is soaking in a bubble bath, going for a walk or getting a massage – you’ll soon see that it leaves you better equipped to deal with your schedule, however hectic it may be.

What are your healthcare priorities?
The media is saturated with medical aid advertisements. Ironically, these marketing schemes often punt free movie tickets, discounted holidays, and a range of other benefits more than the health insurance itself.

While these extras might be nice, it is the actual medical aid cover that will come in handy when you need it most. Basically, if you are thinking about signing up with a medical aid scheme, you need to establish what your priorities are.

When contacting a healthcare call centre to enquire about medical aid options, would you prefer to speak to a professional who is dedicated to the scheme in question? Or wouldn’t you mind if this person juggles his or attention between members of different schemes?

Ideally, medical aid seekers should be driven by the following priorities:

• Sincere and solid healthcare is more important than gym contracts or other promised add-ons
  
• Financial stability does not depend on the physical size of a medical aid company
  
• Service delivery and dedication to every member’s individual needs are paramount!

Why should you get medical aid in the first place?
Metaphorically speaking, health insurance is like the air you breathe: There isn’t a problem until you realise you don’t have it. Think about it, getting sick is stressful even if you have medical aid – just imagine the stress and expense of the whole ordeal without any form of health insurance at all! Depending on the extent of your illness or condition, hospital bills and medication could have a crippling effect on your finances. In fact, most people will agree that medical aid is not a luxury, but a necessity.

Here is the good news: Thanks to the wide variety of medical aid schemes and products on the South African market, it is possible for everyone to find the perfect health insurance programme to suit their specific needs.

Medical aid is medical aid, you might be thinking: How specific can anyone’s healthcare requirements be? You’ll soon learn that the answer to that question is actually quite self-explanatory. Think about it: A healthy 22-year old surely doesn’t need the same kind of medical cover as a 63-year old cancer patient. While this example might seem a little extreme, it is a fact that different people need different levels of medical care depending on their age, financial capacity and, of course, the particular cover they have in mind.

Your second objection might be to the tune of: If a person is badly injured in a car accident – whether they are seventeen or fifty-five – surely, the medical attention they require will amount to approximately the same cost? Our answer would be: Yes, you are absolutely correct and this is why most medical aid providers offer a type of “hospital plan”. According to these plans, members pay a monthly health insurance fee, which is intended to cover them in the event of hospitalisation. Ideal for young, healthy professionals whose day-to-day medical expenses are minimal, hospital plans offer peace of mind in the knowledge that they will be taken care of in the event of any major accident.

Comprehensive medical aid plans, on the other hand, are designed for people – generally older people who are more likely to become sick – with significantly higher day-to-day medical costs. For them, it is much more economical to pay the once-off, monthly comprehensive health insurance amount, than to pay doctors’, dentists’, specialists’ and chemists’ bills separately. These bills are almost guaranteed to add up to a significantly higher amount, if all your medical expenses were paid out of your pocket on a day-to-day basis.

In short, when it comes to the different medical aid plans that are available, cost is proportional to the degree of medical cover the member receives. In other words, the more you pay each month, the greater amount of cover you will receive. The real question is: “How much health insurance do you actually need?”

Which medical aid is the cheapest?
This is not the right question to ask. As discussed above, you should select a medical aid plan that best suits your individual needs – in terms of both your health and your budget.

Keep in mind that the cheapest plan is not necessarily the most affordable medical solution. Whereas you might spend very little on your monthly medical contribution, your monthly medical expenses – which are not covered by your healthcare scheme, might end up costing you a fortune.

It is also important to be aware of the fact that South African medical aid rates are regulated by the government. This means that health insurance will cost about the same, irrespective of which particular medical aid company you choose.

All major healthcare providers have a variety of plans that range from hospital plans to comprehensive cover, and the prices of these plans vary accordingly. Ultimately, the deciding factor, when it comes to selecting a medical aid, involves asking the following questions:

• Which medical aid will give me the best service?
  
• Does the medical aid have a range of plans, one of which is well suited to both my budget and my particular health requirements?
  
• Is the medical aid well established and guaranteed to deliver in my time of need?

At the end of the day, signing up for some sort of medical aid plan is the responsible thing to do – both financially and health wise. Bear in mind that monthly medical aid contributions are tax deductible – albeit partially – and health insurance could possibly save you thousands of rands during a time of need. For most people, it is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

The benefits of joining Selfmed as a group
Are there more than 10 people in your office or organisation who might be interested in joining the Selfmed medical aid scheme? If so, you qualify as a group, and hence, will be eligible for added benefits – over and above those that every individual Selfmed member receives.

The Selfmed medical aid scheme has become known as one of South Africa’s top healthcare providers. With over 40 years’ experience, Selfmed is reputed for its financial stability, promptness, and unbeatable personal service.

Selfmed offers a simple, yet thorough and innovative range of medical aid options that were specifically designed to suit both the healthcare requirements and budgets of South Africans.

Furthermore, our call centre – also known as the “excellence centre” – is owned and controlled by Selfmed. This means that we take personal responsibility for every phone call. With Selfmed, there is no administrative middleman – we deal with every member directly.

Read on to find out more about Selfmed, and particularly, about the difference between joining our scheme as an individual or as a group.

Every individual Selfmed member receives:

• The opportunity to choose from a wide selection of innovative Selfmed options – one of which is bound to suit both your health and budgetary requirements
  
• Unlimited hospitalisation cover at any South African private hospital
  
• Unlimited emergency transport and related benefits with ER24 in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland
  
• Admittance to specialised disease management and control programmes when diagnosed with a terminal condition, e.g.: cancer or Aids
  
• Option of having an ABSA credit card to complement the payment of additional day-to-day medical costs
  
• Generous cover for gastroscopies, colonoscopies, and tonsillectomies (whether member is hospitalised or not)
  
• Generous pregnancy and birthing benefits
  
• Unlimited rehabilitation, home nursing and recovery benefits

Members who join Selfmed as a group (10 or more people) receive:

• All the above mentioned individual member benefits
  
• The services of a Selfmed consultant who is dedicated to your group
  
• In most instances, no waiting periods – which means every member of the group will be covered immediately

As is clear from the above, there are two major advantages of joining Selfmed medical aid as a member of a group.

You will have your own Selfmed consultant who will meet with your group at your offices, as required, to discuss Selfmed’s benefit options.

The second major benefit of joining Selfmed as a member of a group is that everyone in the group will be covered from day one – there will be no waiting periods!

If you work with 10 or more people who would be interested in becoming members of South Africa’s most personalised medical aid scheme, why not schedule an appointment with one of Selfmed’s consultants today?

Description: Medical aid cover and health in the workplace promote staff productivity and morale and benefit the employer in the long run

Health in the workplace
There are very few people in the job market who can say that they’ve never had to deal with stress in the workplace. The reality is: If you’ve got a job, chances are you’ve had to deal with workplace stress.

Studies have shown that people generally work harder, for longer hours and with fewer breaks than ever before. Job stress has doubled and job satisfaction has dropped – taking employee loyalty along with it. All these workplace stresses have a negative result on employee health and overall wellbeing. And the bad news for employers is that it also affects negatively on their morale and productivity.

So what exactly is stress?
Stress is the body’s way of dealing with the demand of long hours, the pressure of tight deadlines, a never-ending workload and the constant challenge of working with a difficult boss. The body reacts to these tense situations by being in a constant state of emergency mode. Your blood pressure rises and your heart rate increases as the body goes into “fight or flight” readiness. The bad news is that if you stay in this state for too long it can cause a range of illnesses and even death.

The importance of a healthy workplace
Work-life balance is a serious and growing concern for employers, business owners and managers. As employees spend more and more time at work, it is imperative to find ways of improving staff retention, morale and productivity.

Work-life balance can be defined as managing the competing roles and responsibilities of being at work, at home and in the community. As the demand for our time and energy increases, many workers are reporting the “struggle to juggle” all their duties and responsibilities and still manage to maintain a healthy personal life.

So what does this mean for the employer?
As the job provider, you play a very important part in the work-life balance of your employees. Work stress is more strongly associated with health complaints than any other single source of stress, including finances and family. Creating a pleasant work environment that allows for flexibility and employee well-being makes good business sense with proven benefits for yourself, your employees and your company.

Look at it this way. At the end of the day it is much cheaper to implement a good working practice than to pay the costs of absenteeism and loss of business. By working together, employers and staff can identify workplace health risks and take simple, cost effective steps to reduce and manage them.

What is in it for employers?
More and more employees list things like medical aid, flexi time and a good work-life balance as a pre-requisite for taking up a new position. As a working individual you know that all those things are important to maintain a healthy balance. However, business owners and employers might need a lot more persuasion to build it into their business plans, like the fact that their organisation’s capability to draw and hold on to workers will increasingly depend on the promise of a good work-life balance.

Costly consequences
It has been proven many times over: A conflict in balancing your life at work, at home and in your community could have serious consequences. And the reality is that organisations bear the brunt of this work-life conflict. These consequences include:

• Increased absenteeism
  
• Increased employee turnover
  
• Reduced productivity
  
• Increased disability costs
  
• Increased health costs
  
• Reduced job satisfaction
  
• Increased managerial stress
  
• Impaired family/social relationship

Looking after your employees’ health
An important part of looking after your employees' health is providing at least basic medical aid cover. Selfmed Medical Aid Scheme is a registered, open South African medical aid company that provides exceptional cover at affordable rates. Find out more about the benefits of joining as a group and let us take care of your health and well-being.

The business benefits of a balanced work-life
One of the sure-fire measurements of a good company work-life is the level of employee satisfaction. Businesses with high levels of employee satisfaction have come to the realisation that they shouldn’t view work-life balance options as “perks”. It is time for companies in South Africa to realise that this forms part of a business strategy that offers a solid return on investment for the business as well as the staff.

In short, successful business leaders should do more than just balance the books – they should also help their employees to balance their work-life issues. The results from surveys carried out among small and medium-sized, as well as large enterprises around the country support this belief. Companies report that work-life balance programs have assisted them to:

• Bolster employment:
  An increasing number of people in the job market now specify work-life balance as a preference or requirement. Offering a good balance gives the business a competitive edge in recruiting the cream of the crop.
• Lower staff turnover:
  Employees who benefit from work-life balance programs stay at their companies for longer, due to good employee satisfaction levels.
• Improve staff attendance:
  The majority of companies surveyed reported that flexible working schedules significantly increased their staff attendance.
• Reduce tardiness:
  Allowing employees the freedom to work flexi-time drastically reduces instances of arriving late for work.
• Boost productivity:
  A happy employee is a productive employee. Companies reported a healthy climb in productivity after implementing work-life balance programs.
• Nurture an environment of happy workers:
  Being a little more accommodating towards your staff members will improve relationships among colleagues, and better the level of general satisfaction in the office.
• Encourage receptiveness to training:
  Well-balanced workers are more likely to engage in training and education.

Easy ways to create a good work-life balance in the workplace
It is relatively simple to ascertain how much you, as an employer, need to do in order to create a healthy work-life for your staff. By simply making an effort to get to know your employees, listening to their needs and being responsive and flexible – you are already helping.

Be flexible!
Flexi-time is about more than just flexible work hours. It may also refer to alternative work schedules, compressed workweeks and voluntary part-time or reduced hours. By doing something simple like giving your staff a little more leeway with respect to time management, you can improve overall staff-satisfaction immensely. This includes:

1. Alternative work schedules
Employees work a full day but can adapt the start and end of their workday within defined guidelines. There is usually a set “core” of work hours when all employees are expected to be present. This gives them the freedom to fit work around personal commitments and also allows each person to work at times when they are at their most productive.

2. Compressed workweek
Employees work the full number of hours in their regular scheduled work week or cycle, but these hours are compressed into fewer days. For example, an employee working one extra hour a day earns approximately one day off in every two-week cycle; an employee adding a certain number of minutes to each workday receives every third Friday off. This allows for visits to the doctor or dentist, and employees might even save on overtime costs.

3. Voluntary part-time / reduced hours
Voluntary part-time or reduced hours mean employees choose to work less than full-time on a company’s regular payroll. These arrangements may be temporary or permanent or may be set to help employees manage personal commitments.

A great start to a healthy work-life
Whether you already provide a balanced work-life environment for your employees, or are just starting to warm up to the idea, proper medical aid cover is the cornerstone of happy, healthy workforce. Read more about Selfmed Medical Aid and find out about the benefits of joining as a group.