FANews
FANews
RELATED CATEGORIES
Category Healthcare
SUB CATEGORIES General  |  HIV |  Medical Schemes | 

Severe Illness cover makes the road to recovery a little easier

10 October 2013 Dr. Peter Bond, Old Mutual
June and husband Derek le Roux.

June and husband Derek le Roux.

A cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming news for any family. What usually follows is a process involving intense treatment (sometimes with debilitating side effects), medical bills, time off work and psychological adjustment. For June le Roux, a housewife from Delareyville in the North West province, severe illness cover lightened the load on her road to recovery from breast cancer.

"I was totally blown away when I found out I had breast cancer,” she says. "I regularly do self examinations, but never noticed anything out of the ordinary. My gynaecologist also detected nothing during a routine check-up, yet two months later my mammogram showed cause for concern. Fluids were drawn immediately and sent for tests.”

June was diagnosed with breast cancer early in 2012 just before her 60th birthday. "It was a huge wake-up call for me,” she says. "We take life for granted, then something like this happens and your life is turned upside down. We tend to forget it can happen to anybody!”

June underwent chemotherapy for eight months, followed by six weeks of daily radiation therapy to move the cancer into a state of remission. "The chemotherapy was very taxing on my body,” she says. "I was always tired and eventually lost all my hair, including my eyebrows and eyelashes. It became embarrassing to go out in public. To make matters worse, I had to have a mastectomy on my left breast.

"Thankfully my medical aid covered all my treatments and medication. I also had severe illness cover with Old Mutual that paid out within two weeks of my diagnosis. A few years ago, when my financial adviser spoke to my husband and I about the value of having this cover, I knew it was not to replace our medical aid, but to cover any shortfalls, should there be any, and to make recovery more pleasant.”

June can only consider breast reconstruction two years after she completed her radiation treatment, so she invested the payout from Old Mutual in case she decides to have the operation in the future.

She is also on medication that she needs to take for the next five years to help ensure that the cancer does not return and has to go for check-ups every four months.

"Medical aids are generally excellent when it comes to illnesses such as cancer,” says Dr. Peter Bond, Chief Medical Officer at Old Mutual. "Most will cover 100% of the medical aid rates and some even 200 and 300 percent, depending on the plan you have. The problem is that super specialists, like oncologists, can charge up to 300 percent of medical aid rates, and people who are on more basic medical aid plans often have to pay the difference out of their own pockets. The answer is to have either severe illness or gap cover to cover these shortfalls.”

Apart from covering treatment shortfalls, severe illness cover can also pay for home adjustments, recuperation getaways or even replace incomes while the patient recovers. "Or, as in the case of June le Roux, it can be reinvested for future treatments or reconstructive surgery,” adds Dr Bond.

"Depending on the insurance company you choose, severe illness cover can also extend to heart attacks, strokes and Alzheimer’s. Speak to your financial adviser to find out what cover will best suit the life stage you are in.”

"Cancers can affect anyone at any time of their life,” says June. "I am thankful for every day that I am alive and the best piece of advice I can give to women out there is to make sure you get your mammograms done regularly and that you are financially prepared for anything that may happen.”
Quick Polls

QUESTION

South Africa went to Davos to pitch itself as an investor-friendly destination, then signed an Expropriation Act. What message does this send to global investors?

ANSWER

Invest at your peril
SA is open for business
Two steps forward, one land grab back
Welcome to Hotel California
fanews magazine
FAnews February 2025 Get the latest issue of FAnews

This month's headlines

Unseen risks: insuring against the impact of AI gone wrong
Machine vs human: finding the balance
Is embedded insurance the end of traditional broker channels?
Client aspirations take centre stage as advisers rethink retirement planning
Maximise TFSA contributions before year-end
Subscribe now