By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
Leading health care group — Corporate 24 — today launched an inclusive medical aid cover — Myplan — for low to medium earners whereby they get to choose which services they want covered.
In a major breakthrough in providing medical aid cover to all and sundry, Myplan provides options to choose what you want covered.
Guest at the event, Dr Nigel Chanakira applauded Corporate 24 for addressing the issue of low uptake in medical aid cover.
“Low cost initiatives are welcome to increase uptake and hence even encouraging the employers to afford some sort of cover.
“More people are on funeral cover than medical aid cover due to our cultural beliefs. Products like Myplan are a good initiative as they offer the opportunity to mass market to join medical aid. It allows the general populacy to access healthcare,” Dr Chanakira said.
He said using technology to enhance ease of joining like the Corporate 24 chatbot with integrated gateways reduces some challenges with joining medical aid that we have seen in the past.
“The USPs of Myplan a medical aid that allows you to choose the benefits you want covered is a very welcome development as life is about choices. It’s budget friendly,” Dr Chanakira said.
Traditionally medical aid packages are one size fits all with already designed benefit structures which does not match the budgets of low to medium earners.
With Myplan you can reduce the benefits you want covered to customize them according to your preferences and budget to enable you to reduce your monthly contributions.
Whilst the benefits range from as low as a $1/member for admission in a public hospital the array of benefits to choose from revolves around 3 main benefits which include consultation and treatment at GPs and 24-Hour Medical centres, Emergency cover and Hospitalisation.
On top of these core benefits you can elect to add as low as $1/month the pharmacy drug benefit, laboratory tests, xrays, scans and ambulance cover separately.
Each main benefit starts from as low as $3 with $5 and $10 options. You can add as many people as you prefer under Myplan.
Corporate 24 Chief Executive Dr Mike Joka said Joining medical aid has remained an inconvenience that has contributed to low medical aid uptake in the past.
“With the perpetration rate of medical aid in Zimbabwe less than 5% of the close to $15million populace it is imperative for medical aid players to come with not only cost effective but also products that give value. Myplan is available on the Corporate 24 chatbot for anyone using the WhatsApp platform,” Dr Joka said.
In another first Dr Joka said with Myplan one can join in the comfort of their home without using a sales agent or visiting a Corporate 24 offices through unique and innovative chatbot.
“On this chatbot one can join by selecting preferred benefits from the shopping cart, adding the preferred beneficiaries and making payments via ecocash, one money, innbucks, zimswitch, visa and Mastercard.
“The chatbot is not the only digital platform that one can utilize to join Myplan. There is also the online shopping cart which one can also utilize to choose the preferred benefits in the form of a cart and make payments on the same gateways online,” he said.
Dr Joka said Myplan medical can be used to access medical services anywhere in Zimbabwe and is not limited to Corporate 24 facilities.
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