Discovery Medical Aid Review: A Disappointing Experience for Our Daughter’s Severe Eczema Treatment

We’ve been with Discovery Medical Aid for some time, but our recent experience has been nothing short of heartbreaking. Our 12-year-old daughter suffers from severe eczema, which covers her entire body, including open wounds that often bleed badly, particularly during the night. Her condition is so severe that it has affected her eyes (VKC), requiring chronic eye drops, and she has developed rhinitis and asthma as a result of her eczema. Despite our best efforts to manage her condition—including using various creams prescribed by her dermatologist and pediatrician, maintaining a meticulously clean environment to avoid dust mites and mold, and hospitalisations—nothing has provided lasting relief.

After exhausting all other options, her doctor prescribed cyclosporine, an expensive medication that has been the only treatment to show some promise in easing her suffering. We app**** to have this treatment funded under the Prescribed Minimum Benefits (PMB) with Discovery Medical Aid, but our initial application was declined. We appealed, providing detailed documents and photos showing the severity of her condition, yet we were still denied.

What is most disheartening is that despite all the evidence we provided, Discovery’s decision-makers seemed indifferent to the fact that a 12-year-old child is enduring constant pain, severe bleeding, and the psychological toll of bullying due to her condition. We pay a significant amount towards our medical aid every month, yet when we needed their support the most, they refused to help. This has forced us to seek assistance at a public hospital, where we have to wait for hours to get the treatment our daughter desperately needs.

It is incredibly disappointing that Discovery has chosen to turn a blind eye to a child’s suffering, especially when this medication is the only thing that offers her any relief. We expected more compassion and support from our medical aid, but instead, we feel abandoned at a time when we needed them the most.