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Your health is your wealth – are you looking after yourself?

09 February 2023 Tony Singleton, CEO at Turnberry Risk Management Solutions
Tony Singleton, CEO at Turnberry Risk Management Solutions

Tony Singleton, CEO at Turnberry Risk Management Solutions

While nobody can argue that a healthy lifestyle, regular exercise, and a balanced diet are essential for longevity and overall wellbeing, the reality is that accidents and illness can affect anyone, no matter how physically fit or healthy you may be.

When this happens, medical expenses are an almost inevitable consequence, and in these times, even when you have medical aid, this often results in medical expense shortfalls that you would need to cover out of pocket, unless you have gap cover in place.

The benefits of a healthy lifestyle
Aside from the benefits of improved cardiovascular health, being physically active can?improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities.

Research has also found that regular exercise can help to slow down the aging process. The benefits of a balanced diet include healthy skin, teeth, and eyes, stronger bones, an improved immune system and a lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other cancers.

Not a silver bullet
The upshot is that we can live longer, fuller and happier lives if we take care of our physical health and adopt a balanced lifestyle. Unfortunately though, even if you do this, you are not exempt from accidents or illness. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of seemingly fit and healthy people experiencing unexpected strokes and heart attacks.

There is also increasing prevalence of various cancers in otherwise healthy individuals, and nobody is immune to accidents. There is no silver bullet to staying healthy and well or to living forever, and you need to make sure that if something happens, your medical aid cover will actually cover it.

The cost of your health
When you are fit and healthy it is all too easy to adopt the mentality that ‘it won’t happen to me’ but the truth is that it very well could. Being unprepared could result in significant medical expense shortfalls from surgeons, anaesthetists, hospitals, co-payments, and from ambulance or helicopter evacuation.

Without the right cover in place, these shortfalls will have to be covered out of your own pocket, and they can end up being tens or even hundreds of thousands of Rands, which can ruin your financial future. Turnberry has paid out claims in excess of R100?000 for ischaemic heart disease, and more than R80?000 for breast cancer, for example, both of which are diseases that can affect anyone.

It pays to be prepared
Medical expense shortfalls can be life-changing sums of money that most people simply do not have lying around. Paying for them may involve cancelling policies meant for retirement, taking out loans from banks or employers, working out payment plans for providers, and additional stress that is really the last thing you need when you are trying to recover. Gap cover can be a literal lifesaver, helping to cover these shortfalls and prevent the financial hardship that could be involved with paying them off.

Looking after your health is important, but so is your financial future. A holistic approach to planning your portfolio, including investments and relevant policies, is an essential part of living a long, healthy and fulfilling life, along with a healthy overall lifestyle. That’s why it is important to talk to your financial advisor about the right combination of medical and gap cover to protect your health as well as your wealth.

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