Can a lack of knowledge regarding Prescribed Minimum Benefits (PMBs) mean that you, instead of your medical scheme, end up paying for the treatment of conditions, diagnosis and care?

PMB's: Episode 5

		In this episode...
		PMB's and HIV Medical services for those with HIV How your HIV status affects your medical aid scheme.

As Suzie contemplated HIV and the devastation that it has caused on our country the face of a particular young boy came to mind, Nkosi Johnson! “I wonder if his mom had Medical Aid cover and if ‘Prescribed Minimum Benefits’ existed back then?” Suzie contemplated for a moment what it would be like to be a mother of a child with HIV and you could only afford a basic medical aid when ‘Prescribed Minimum Benifits’ didn’t exist. That would probably mean that somehow Gail, his adoptive mother, would have had to try and earn more money somehow to pay for his medical treatments.

After a quick bit of reading through material she received from her Medical Aid Broker Suzie realized just how important ‘Prescribed Minimum Benefits’ are to people with HIV. Suzie’s mother had rented out her garden flat to a man living with HIV once who tragically passed away a year or two later. But, Suzie recalls speaking to him a couple of times and he seemed like a really nice guy and very willing to talk and educate anyone about the disease. He had contracted HIV through a blood transfusion and had been living with it for around five years. He said that the most difficult part about HIV is not the disease itself, but managing other potential illnesses and problems carefully. Since HIV affects the immune system it becomes ever more important to be careful even if you just have a cold.

Thankfully, Prescribed Minimum Benefits and Medical Aid companies are doing their best to help and support victims of HIV. Preventative treatment for TB, medication (including the provision of anti-retroviral therapy), prevention of mother-to-child transmission, pain management and palliative care and many more services available to sufferers are made possible through Prescribed Minimum Benefits.

Once again Prescribed Minimum Benefits had made a difficult subject a little lighter for Suzie who was now almost ready to make her choice in Medical Aid.