/ 22 February 2010

Buy your vitamins with cash

Although your medical aid will pay for certain vitamins out of your medical savings, this can be a very costly way to buy your vitamins.

Medical schemes pay out according to the government’s National Health Reference Price List, yet these prices can sometimes be as much as R100 more than the cash price charged by your pharmacy or health store.

This is often also the case with other over-the-counter medication, especially at large discount pharmacies like Dischem or Clicks.

Only use your medical savings for doctor’s visits, prescribed medication, blood tests, dentistry and optometry. This way your medical savings will last longer, and if you don’t use up your full savings they can roll over to the next year.

Another point to remember is that over-the-counter medication does not accumulate to your threshold if you have a medical scheme option that has threshold cover which kicks in once you have exhausted your day-to-day medical savings.