Summary of waiting periods and late-joiner penalties
| Type 1 membership | Type 2 membership | Type 3 membership |
| No previous cover or more than a 3-month break in cover from previous medical scheme | Less than 2 years continuous cover with less than a 3-month break in cover from previous medical scheme | More than 2 years continuous cover with less than 3-month break in cover from previous medical scheme |
| Waiting periods that may be applied | ||
| 12-month condition specific waiting periods 3-month general waiting period | 12-month condition specific waiting period for newly diagnosed conditions Balance of any waiting periods still active from previous scheme | 3-month general waiting period |
| Prescribed Minimum Benefits | ||
| Not eligible for cover of Prescribed Minimum Benefits | Eligible for cover of Prescribed Minimum Benefits | Eligible for cover of Prescribed Minimum Benefits |
Late-joiner penalties
A late joiner is an applicant or dependant, who at time of application with Momentum Medical Scheme:
- is 35 years or older, and
- was not a member of a registered medical scheme on or before 1 April 2001, or
- has allowed more than 3-months break in membership since 1 April 2001.
How to calculate the late-joiner penalty:
A = B - (35 + C) where B = age and C = creditable coverage (number of years on a South African registered medical scheme).
The late-joiner penalty is applied to the risk portion of the contribution based on the following scales:
| Years not covered on a previous medical scheme from age 35 onwards | Late-joiner penalty |
| 1 - 4 years | 5% |
| 5 - 14 years | 25% |
| 15 - 24 years | 50% |
| 25+ years | 75% |
Disclaimer: +Momentum Medical Scheme members may choose to make use of additional products available from Momentum Group Limited and its subsidiaries as well as Momentum Multiply (herein collectively referred to as Momentum). Momentum is not a medical scheme and is a separate entity to Momentum Medical Scheme. Momentum products are not medical scheme benefits. You may be a member of Momentum Medical Scheme without taking any of the products offered by Momentum.