As we age, the importance of medical insurance is pretty evident. Imagine sitting on a public list in agony for months, waiting for a hip replacement …watching your lifestyle village mates with private medical cover go in, have surgery and get back on the tennis court in no time.
What is the point having medical insurance for kids?
We have had that very question asked by different clients in the past couple of weeks. While hip replacements, colonoscopies and endoscopies (where we see a lot of claims in older age bracket) are not common amongst the younger generation; tonsillectomies, allergy investigations and recurrent ear infections are. Desensitisation therapies can cost upward of $850 a pop, and over a year long period it all adds up.
The other advantage of adding your child to your medical insurance policy within the first 3 months from when they are born is that they are not assessed medically. The addition of a new born is an administrative change only, so your child will not have any exclusions on the policy if they keep it into adulthood. This is great news for them as they face wisdom teeth impacting and sinus problems necessitating surgery - they will be able to claim for the surgery, and not rely on you (their parents) for help paying for costly procedures.
We have really good examples of when medical insurance for kids works well:
One client's child was admitted to Starship for headaches, as it turned out she has an issue with her eye causing pressure to build up in her eye socket. She was treated at the time but requires ongoing assessment and treatment. Her parents elected to go private, using their medical insurance, and she is seeing a top neurologist in the private sector. It's likely that this condition will continue off and on. She's fine, but needs monitoring and follow up as the condition can cause other issues. This is a really good example of medical insurance working for her now and also protecting her into adulthood (she is currently 7).
Last year, we had two children claim for tonsillectomies. Though it doesn't sound like many, it is two children that didn't have to wait for publicly funded surgery. Before your child can even be considered for the public list, they must have suffered from 5-7 infections in a year, which must be severe enough to affect their normal life (i.e. take time off school), then the waiting list is anywhere from 4-6 months.
Relying on publicly funded health care is becoming less of an option in NZ…wouldn't you want the best care for your kids?