Posts Tagged ‘Discovery’

Posted on April 18, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Man from Discovery wanted to shoot my son

Hey, it looks like you're new here to my blog! You may want to consider subscribing to my RSS feed and you'll automatically get notified when I post a new blog entry. If web feeds aren't your thing then why not join my email list by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by.

Yesterday morning we were minding our own business at the hospital when the Ward Nurse, Felicity, came to our room to have a discussion with us.

Felicity: Morning Mr. and Mrs. Hartman, I have a man here from Discovery Health and he wants to shoot your son. He is specifically looking for a white boy to shoot.
Me: He wants to shoot my son? Are you being serious?
Felicity: *laughs*, no sir, he is here to do a TV advert for Discovery Health and wants to know if you’ll be willing to let them use your son for the advert. They will pay you of course.

Hmm… I started to see a couple dollar signs.

Colette: Could we get free medical aid?
Felicity: *laughs* – I don’t know.
Me: Ok bring him in. We can’t guarantee anything but we’re willing to chat.

In steps Maurice, seemingly not from Discovery but rather the film crew involved in the Discovery advert.

Maurice: Hi folks, congratulations on the birth of your new child. We’re shooting an ad for Discovery and we need a white, newborn baby to complete the scene.
Me: What exactly would my son have to do?
Maurice: Well the scene would involve having your son put into an incubator and then the tough-looking father comes in and touches his hand.
Me: ok…
Maurice: If you agree to let us use your son for the advert I’d have to drive to Pretoria so I can get him a work-permit.

A work-permit? What for? Oh wait, he’s under 16… never mind that he’s less than 2 days old.

Colette: When is the advert being shot?
Maurice: Tuesday morning.
Colette: That’s going to be a problem because Tuesday morning is when our son’s Bris is taking place.
Maurice: Oh…
Maurice: Can’t you change the date?

My wife chuckles because a Bris has to be done 8-days after the baby is born.

Colette: No.
Me: Sorry Maurice, but we’re just not going to be able to do this. Thanks for your time and sorry!

*Maurice scampers off disappointed*

 

Posted on November 22, 2007 - by Justin Hartman

What is the point of a Medical Aid?

One of my reasons for moving to The Times was the lucrative medical aid offer from Discovery Life. Having not been on a Medical Aid for more than 12 months this was quite a critical issue for me as family medical costs have to be a top priority.

In recent weeks Luke had a minor operation and Colette had an Amniocentesis to test for downs-syndrome in our unborn son.

I’ve just received my medical aid statement for November from Discovery and below is a breakdown of the costs incurred.

You can see that the total cost for both procedures was R9,024.09. Of that I have to pay R4,271.99 and an amount of R2,085.43 was paid directly from my savings account. This means that Discovery’s total liability was only R2,666.67 – the rest is paid using my money.

Now I might be missing the point here but how is it possible that a medical aid company only covers 29.5% of hospital procedures? It’s not like we went to some designer optician and spent R9,000 on matching his and her glasses – these were both hospital induced costs and I find myself paying more than 70% of the total bill.

I’m wondering if a hospital plan is not a better option for me seeing as I pay a fortune for Discovery each month and ultimately end up paying most of bills anyway?

Pathetic!