In a country such as South Africa that operates a National Health Service every citizen is entitled to some form of health cars covered by Social Security and National Insurance funds.

Unfortunately, due to budget restrictions, the level of cover provided by the state is pretty basis, and fails to provide answers to many pressing medical problems that arise among the county’s population.

As a way of offsetting this problem, and reducing the financial burdens placed on the employee, many of the South Africa’s major employers, both in the public and private sectors, and either totally provide or partially subsidize health insurance for their permanent workers.

For those who are unfortunate enough not to enjoy this privilege have no option to either take their chances with state provided health insurance or do their best to cover themselves with private health insurance. Qualifying for health insurance need not be difficult or out with anyone’s reach. All that is required is to contact an insurance company through their broker, or even online, to receive further details.

Once you contact the insurance broker of your choice, the first and most important step will be to undergo a through medical at a medical practice that that the insurance company appoints. The medical report takes a long term view of your medical condition, and especially your vital organs and how they are functioning. The state of your heart will be their number one concern, but they will also be checking out your lungs, kidneys, liver and other vital organs which could be damaged for whatever reason.
The medical examiners will be very thorough in their investigations, and may even ask questions that some may find offensive and intrusive.

They will want to know if you are a smoker, and if so for how long and how many cigarettes you smoke every day. They will look closely at your weight, and the breakdown of your diet. Another important area where these medical examiners will be especially interested is your life style: if you take part in sports or exercise on a regular basis.

Another issue that will be of considerable importance to the examiners will be details of any hereditary health problems in your family. This kind of information is very important in analyzing the probability of contracting one of the major diseases. Another factor in building your health profile is the nature of the job that you do and in which environment you work.

All this information needs to be gathered and sent off to your insurance company for them to scrutinize. There are entire departments in insurance company who job it is to decide who qualifies for health insurance, and if so to what extent. These insurance company employees carry a lot of responsibility as they have to assess how much cover the insurance company can provide, as well as its cost.

Needless to say, if someone approaches and insurance company asking for health insurance cover and they are in perfect health, the chances of them being accepted is higher. Considerably more so than someone who arrives as a heavy smoker, overweight and with all the characteristics of a health disaster waiting to happen.
To sum up, a person who takes their health seriously will more or less always be welcomed with open arms by any insurance company when they apply for health insurance, and the cost will be moderate.