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Healthy hearts that beat to the drum of longevity

11 September 2015 Dr Adela Osman, Momentum
Dr Adela Osman, Chief Medical Officer at Momentum.

Dr Adela Osman, Chief Medical Officer at Momentum.

Declaring the month of September as National Heart Awareness Month and celebrating World Heart Day in this same month, sends a powerful message. Dr Adela Osman, Chief Medical Officer at Momentum states that “Although the heart is the hardest-working muscle in the body, it is not immune to diseases”.

According to the World Health Organisation, in 2030 it is estimated that 23.3 million people will die annually from cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). In SA, one in three men and one in four women will have a heart condition before the age of 60, as stated by the Heart and Stoke Foundation South Africa.

Other prominent research including that of The World Heart Federation shows that South Africans’ changing diet – because of economic, political and social factors – which includes more salt, fat and sugar is contributing significantly towards an increase in cardiovascular diseases. Dr Osman says that “Other contributing factors to this alarming trend include obesity where two-thirds of SA women are obese and one-quarter of our children follow suit”.

This statement is reiterated by the prominent scientific journal called **The Lancet** that released a report stating that the highest rate of obesity and overweight amongst adults in sub-Saharan Africa is found in SA women at 42 per cent. Along with this, 19 per cent of boys are overweight or obese versus 26 per cent in girls.

Dr Osman adds that “The unhealthy choices that we make when it comes to diet, lifestyle and the lack of regular exercise also lead to a rise in blood pressure”. According to The World Heart Federation about half of all strokes are caused by high blood pressure which leads to the majority of death and disability related conditions linked to CVDs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Proactive intervention

“Luckily there are a number of interventions that we can introduce that will contribute to a healthy heart including following a balanced diet, regular exercise, avoid smoking and excessive alcohol intake as well as visiting the doctor for regular check-ups”, according to Dr Osman.

She continues and states that “It is also important to find out if there is any history of heart diseases in [your] family. If a first-degree male relative (for example, father and/or brother) has suffered a heart attack before the age of 55, or if a first-degree female relative has suffered a heart attack before the age of 65, you are at greater risk of developing heart disease.

If both parents have suffered from heart disease before the age of 55, your risk of developing heart disease can rise to 50 per cent compared to the general population. However, you can protect yourself by taking care of your heart, as the development of cardiovascular disease involves many different factors, not just your family history.

From a proactive point of view, it is equally important to ensure that you have adequate critical illness cover in place that offers the necessary financial support, to you and our family, in the event of a heart attack or stroke occurring. In fact, the lifetime cost of a severe stroke, for example, can amount to R500 000 to R1 million, taking into account initial rehabilitation and chronic medication.

Based on this and our profound understanding of the need for peace of mind and value for money, Momentum has launched new critical illness benefits that provide clients with the most comprehensive cover in the SA market.”

She explains that “Our new Complete Critical Illness Benefit was specifically designed to offer clients tiered pay-outs across all benefit categories for different severity levels. This allows for a smooth progression of payment levels in line with increased severity of conditions including heart diseases. As a result, client needs are met as they arise – paying out a smaller percentage on diagnosis of lower severity events (as defined) and more, if and when, the condition progresses.

However, seeing that more than 70 per cent of all critical illness claims, in our experience, occur under the four major conditions (heart attack, coronary artery bypass graft [CABG], stroke and cancer), as covered by the official Standardised Critical Illness Definitions Project (SCIDEP) grid, we designed the Specified Claim Event Enhancer, as an ancillary benefit, that can be linked to the Complete Critical Illness Benefit. This increases client pay-outs to 100 per cent on qualifying claims linked to the listed four major conditions and offers clients absolute peace of mind in knowing that they will receive a 100 per cent claim pay-out on these major specified claim events.

To ensure that we still offer clients the most comprehensive critical illness cover in the market for the broadest number of conditions but also provide the highest claim pay-out levels, we launched the Complete Enhanced Critical Illness Benefit. This benefit provides maximum pay-outs on the SCIDEP claim event categories and elevates all other 50 and 75 per cent severity claim events to 100 per cent.

To keep things simple, the Complete Enhanced Critical Illness Benefit will cover the same events and have the same claim categories as the Complete Critical Illness Benefit and the only difference is the enhanced pay-out levels.

Taking this one step further, as part of our new critical illness benefits, we introduced a ‘world-first’ Breadth of Cover Guarantee™. This provides clients with unsurpassed breadth of cover by guaranteeing that clients will always receive a payment under their Myriad critical illness benefit because we cover any condition covered by the critical illness benefits of other local insurers and so much more.”

Heart disease does not discriminate

Dr Osman points out that “Heart diseases amongst children are also widespread. Of these, congenital heart defects (CHD) is one of the most prevalent”. This is supported by research published in the South African Medical Journal in 2011, which indicated that approximately 11 000 children are born with these conditions on an annual basis of which an estimated 4 500 cases require surgical intervention. CHD occur when the heart or blood vessels near the heart develop abnormally before birth and the baby is born with this defect. With appropriate care, the prognosis for most of these children is excellent.

With this in mind and the fact that critical illness cover for children is becoming a prominent focal point in the industry, our newly launched benefits, amongst other great features, also include enhanced critical illness cover for children.

Since Momentum’s unique, free critical illness cover for children has always been perceived as an innovative advantage – the newly launched critical illness benefits now also cover a wider range of child-specific conditions. The enhanced critical illness cover for children adds an additional 13 child-specific claim events, including congenital birth defects, juvenile arteritis, cancers and metabolic conditions and extends the entry age to birth. Even more impressive is the fact that the amount of critical illness cover for children will increase from the previous maximum cover amount of R125 000 to R250 000 per insured parent, still free of charge under the parents’ critical illness cover on our new benefits.”

In contrast to the phrase that states “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” Dr Osman concluded by saying that “Awareness, early detection and proactive interventions are all factors that can contribute to a healthy heart that beats to the drum of longevity”.

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