False claims made by GEMS

I recently added my husband to my medical aid and after it was confirmed that the transaction was successful I called on the (date) to confirm how the waiting period works. I was assured twice that the waiting period was three months but if an emergency occurred we could claim. I have a reference number of this telephone conversation. GEMS clerks only made a summary of the conversation and obviously they did not include their empty promises in this summary. When I requested that they listen to the conversation again they simply said that they would get back to me. I am still waiting. My husband was taken up in the emergency room with Diverticulitis. This entails having problems within one’s gut. He was taken up for a week and was prescribed a lot of antibiotics. He was constantly monitored because if his temperature spiked it would be because of an infection and he would have to be operated immediately. This hospital outing entailed drips, antibiotics, 5 overnights, scans and blood tests-turned out to be very expensive. GEMS simply shrugged their shoulders and declined the application. We obviously did not have such a large sum of money and had to take out a personal loan to cover all the hospital costs. My husband was with Discovery but we moved him to GEMS after they made various false promises. No person with a sane mind would put someone on their medical aid with a waiting period of three months in which they are not allowed to make any emergency claims. I understand that one cannot claim things like whitening one’s teeth or visits to the physiothe****** but certainly an exception should be made for an emergency. GEMS’ answer to all this was simply to take my husband to the provincial hospital. This is certainly not the answer one wants if you have been diligently paying thousands for months. To top it, I had to pay for my husband’s waiting period of three months. To conclude, before you add your family members to your GEMS medical aid make sure of their promises and be sure to get everything in writing.