Obviously over the years my attitude towards Insurance has changed drastically and now being uninsurable, I regret not having more insurance in place but am grateful for what I do have and thank my sister (Betty-Anne) for putting that in place for me.
At the age of 42 I was diagnosed with Arterial Flutter and Arterial Fibrillation and required a very unique procedure called an Ablation in which the Doctors put 5 lasers through major veins, into my heart and proceed to zap areas of my heart that were not working properly – all the while keeping me in a semi conscious state so you can feel the lasers firing and burning your heart. This plus being a Diabetic has made me uninsurable and I cannot express enough my disappointment that I don’t have Critical Illness Insurance in place. Given my previous medical experience I feel certain I could have used it in the future. My wife on the other hand does have a Critical Illness Insurance policy and was easily convinced when I told her that if she didn’t use it – she would get all of her premiums back. “That’s a no brainer” was her response. We pay monthly premiums for our house, car and life Insurance and will get none of those premiums back – it’s too bad those companies couldn’t take a lesson from our Critical Illness provider.
My biggest life experience I can draw on, about critical illness insurance, was my Mother. When I was 23 she told me that she had breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy. I was devastated at the fact that she had to continue to work even though she had the operation and was undergoing chemo at the time. Her employer was very understanding and allowed her to work when she could but the fact remained that the treatment was making her very sick and she could not afford to just try and get better at home. What a difference $25,000 or $50,000 would have made to her as she could have concentrated on just getting better and not worrying about her family and their financial needs. The good news was that her cancer went into remission and the bad was that it came back 5 years later and she died because it had spread throughout her body. There were certain things she wanted to do over the course of those 5 years but the financial restraints on she & my Father, made it impossible.
I firmly believe that not enough people are taking Critical Illness Insurance as seriously as they should.
1 in 3 people will develop a critical illness by the age of 45 and
1 in 2 people will develop a critical illness by the age of 60
The fact is most people are surviving the Critical Illness. World renowned heart surgeon Dr. Marius Barnard helped develop critical illness insurance. Dr. Barnard witnessed the emotional strains that many of his patients faced after surviving serious illnesses. Financial stress often worked against recovery or, in many cases, left patients struggling to pay bills as they resumed their lives.
"You need financial independence when you're ill," said Dr. Barnard. "Not because you're going to die, but because you're going to live." This was certainly the case for my Mother.
People need to take responsibility and insure their greatest asset, which is themselves and their earning potential.
Help yourself by checking this out with your Financial Planner – don’t leave it too long or you may find yourself uninsurable, which is what happened to me.
Submitted by Paul Howard, Financial Advisor
Making Dreams a Reality Financial Services
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