According to research done by Cigna cancer ranks as the number one health concern for Kiwi’s. This interesting article on Stuff.co.nz states that cancer claims may not be paid out by private medical insurers as much as expected.
Both Naomi Ballantyne, CEO of Partners Life, and Rob Hennin, CEO of nib agree that while coverage for non-Pharmac drugs was really important for consumers, it wasn’t the largest driver of claims cost.
That’s interesting. We think that highlights how emotive the issue of rationing is.
In effect, no one likes to believe that money should limit the health-care provided. Most grown-ups realise at some point that the public health system is limited in some way. So even though it is very good value for money and we all still love having it, in some way we are kind of shocked and want to buy private medical insurance to restore us to the belief that whatever care is required it will be available… Of course, insurance has limits too, but the emotive part of the purchase process, especially when you have dependents is you want to be able to say ‘we’ll do everything we can’.
The other eye-catching point was the almost casual reference to buying trauma cover – but this is a really important point. Because Trauma is paid on diagnosis and not tied to any particular use of the money, if you really want to buy even completely unproven treatments, then you should buy a lump of Trauma cover. You may then make the choice that if the worst comes to the worst you will spend the final few months you have on earth in comfort