E30 000 cover for mental health

E– Three medical aid plans were introduced by Lidwala Health yesterday and one of these include cover for mental health.

The mental health is covered under the flagship plan known as the Premium Option, which covers both in-patient and out-patient hospitalisation.

This option provides E1.5 million hospital cover per member and E5 million hospital cover per family.

Lidwala Insurance Company’s General Manager Health, Ntokozo Ndzabukelwako, said this option can be accessed through all service providers contracted by Lidwala Health in Eswatini and South Africa.

Cover

“We also have out-patient benefits, which cover pretty much everything from consultation, optometry, mental health, which is quite a big thing these days; I think we’ve got E30 000 available for mental health on our flagship product. Mental health is quite a big thing these days and young people and everybody is quite stressed, so we have to provide benefits that will look into that,” he said.

He said this option further covers things like lab tests and

Ntokozo Ndzabukelwako, the General Manager Health at Lidwala Insurance, detailing game-changing products to be provided by Lidwala Health.

major diseases such as cancer, kidney disease (dialysis).

“We also do cover HIV/AIDS, which is a 100 per cent cover. We cover you from medication, counselling and consultation,” the GM said.

After the Premium Option there is the Flex Option, which is a typical savings plan that has been created such that an out-patient would need to have some kind of savings in order to access this product.

Typically

“But if you don’t have savings on it, what you have is what we typically call a hospital plan, which you can have to cover you in the event that you are hospitalised. The truth of the matter is that in this industry, the most expensive part of health is hospitalisation. Being in ICU, for instance, is very expensive. A hospital plan is to guard against those incidents; whether you fall sick, you are in an accident or anything like that, then the hospital plan looks specifically into that,” Ndzabukelwako said.

He continued: “But if you want some outpatient, it would cover your consultation; if you go to see your doctor or a specialist, it would cover that. It

Lidwala Insurance Company Chairman Michelo Shakantu, outlining how Lidwala Health will impact the lives of emaSwati and create a different structure in the country’s health sector.

would cover things like optometry, dentistry and the likes. Your out-patient portion will come from savings level, which you buy from us from level one to six and the amounts vary from E1980 up to E20 100 in terms of savings that you could have. If you don’t have savings, your in-patient will be E700 000 and E1.6 million for your family.”

Version

The third product is known as the Base Option, which has been created as a lesser version of the flagship premium plan.

The Base Option, according to Ndzabukelwako, is particularly for the young generation as the statistics of the country point out that there are quite a lot of younger people, as well as many single parents.

“Some of them don’t want the high cost of a premium plan but at the same time they want the comfort of a plan that is less costly but does cover both inpatient and outpatient. This plan offers both in full. The individual amount is E350 000 and the family limit of E800 000. This one is very popular with very young people who are just starting work and some who are single parents with one or two children,” he said.