Other forms of insurance
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance pays for your hospital and other related medical costs if you have an emergency while travelling. You can also take out cover against the loss of baggage and the curtailment of your journey. This is especially valuable in the case of foreign travel, because there can be hidden restrictions or limits.
Many people buy coverage that seems inexpensive, but then they find out that they are not fully covered when an emergency arises. What you really want is travel insurance with few restrictions and complications, and expert customer service advisers whom you can call on for help in understanding the cover.
Legal liability insurance
A certain amount of "legal liability cover" is usually included in your household contents insurance policy. This protects you against claims against you personally, usually for negligence of some kind or another. For instance, someone may trip on a loose tile on your front steps and suffer severe injuries. This person may accuse you of being negligent and therefore responsible for her or his injuries, and take you to court to claim for medical expenses, loss of income etc. As soon as you aware of an event that has occurred that might lead to a legal claim against you, it is very important that you notify your insurer immediately.
Medical scheme
Medical schemes are undergoing continuous change. If you belong to a medical scheme today, a basic hospital plan
insurance typically pays out unavoidable hospital claims
, and a separate optional savings plan
covers out-of-hospital expenses
. This works on an annual debit/credit basis. So, if you put R100 a month into the savings plan, you have R1 200 a year to spend on out-of-hospital expenses. But because there is a very real danger that your savings plan will run out of money before the year is over, you can take out threshold insurance
to cover you for expenses above a certain amount (threshold) specified by your policy. This usually covers about 80 per cent of your actual out-of-hospital expenses.
Always read your policy and make sure you know what excess you will have to pay.