What is Crisis & Trauma Recovery insurance?
Simple: Recover First, Worry Less
Being diagnosed with a Critical medical condition impacts both you and your family. Critical Illness insurance can help take away the worry of having to cover your day-to-day expenses and sudden medical costs while you undergo treatment or recover from surgery.
The major risk to family financial health is medical bills
A lump sum payment when you need it most
Crisis & Trauma Recovery insurance can pay you a lump sum benefit payment to use as you see fit. Get the very best medical treatment in Australia, buy a place to live (or pay out the mortgage), hire an in-home-carer, pay for extended time off work, travel interstate for advanced care, modify a home or vehicle to support an illness while you recover.
We've seen clients with serious medical events use their lump sum payout to travel overseas and access advanced medical trials and treatments not yet available in Australia – whatever it takes to help them recover.
An emotional and financial surprise
Handling the emotions that come up when experiencing an unexpected and severe illness is difficult enough. Worrying about your financial stability on top of this can obviously be overwhelming.
- Surprise medical traumas usually involve unexpected (and therefore unbudgeted) out-of-pocket-cost as well.
- They can create an unexpected cash flow drain in the family budget and drain additional cash flow and focus from a small business owner too.
Managing the out-of-pocket-cost to care can even dictate the level of medical care many people are able to afford.
A Medical Crisis or Trauma can destabilise a family if not financially supported
A sudden medical event doesn’t just impact you physically – there are financial consequences as well.
- You may have to take time out from your job or reduce your working hours in order to recover.
- For serious conditions, your spouse or partner might be required to give up work to take on a caring role.
With Crisis and Trauma Recovery insurance in place, you can feel more financially confident and supported when faced with a surprise health crisis.
When do you need Crisis Cover?
You should think out Crisis & Trauma Recovery insurance if you:
- have a partner, family or dependants
- have a mortgage or any other personal debt
- have a business or you’re self employed
- would need money to live if you were unable to work, or
- don’t have adequate savings to cover unexpected expenses
- have a family history of serious health issues occurring later in life
What does it cover?
Many policies provide cover for 40+ specified health conditions described in detail in an insurance company’s product disclosure statements (PDS) - including stroke, cancer, heart disease, kidney failure and dementia.
Below are a sample set of Crisis and Trauma Recovery conditions that can be covered.
Crisis & Trauma Recovery insurance | Sample Insurable Events
Many medical Crisis events are categorised under the different body systems.
Cancers and tumours at the specified severity
benign tumour in the brain or spinal cord (with neurological deficit)
cancer (excluding early stage cancers)
Heart conditions at the specified severity
angioplasty (triple vessel)
aortic surgery
cardiac arrest (out of hospital)
cardiomyopathy (with significant permanent impairment)
coronary artery bypass surgery
heart attack (of specified severity)
heart valve surgery
idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (with permanent impairment)
Severe accident, loss of sight, hearing, speech, use of limbs, paralysis, and loss of independence
diplegia (with paralysis booster payment)
hemiplegia (with paralysis booster payment)
loss of use of hands, feet or sight
loss of hearing
loss of independence
loss of sight
loss of speech
major head trauma (with permanent neurological deficit)
paraplegia (with paralysis booster payment)
quadriplegia (with paralysis booster payment)
severe accident or illness requiring intensive care (with mechanical ventilation for 10 consecutive days)
severe burns (of specified extent)
Neurological conditions at the specified severity
bacterial meningitis or meningococcal septicaemia (with severe life impact)
coma (of specified severity)
dementia including alzheimer’s disease (diagnosis)
encephalitis (with permanent neurological deficit)
motor neurone disease (diagnosis)
multiple sclerosis (with impairment level)
muscular dystrophy (with impairment level)
parkinson’s disease (diagnosis)
stroke (of specified severity)
Blood conditions
aplastic anaemia (requiring treatment)
medically acquired HIV
occupationally acquired hepatitis B or C
occupationally acquired HIV
Other covered conditions at the specified severity
chronic kidney failure (end stage)
chronic liver disease (end stage)
chronic lung disease (end stage)
diabetes (of specified severity)
major organ transplant (or waiting list)
pneumonectomy
severe rheumatoid arthritis (with permanent daily life impact)
Which Crisis or Trauma Recovery policy is right for you?
Some policies are more female health focused, while others are more male health focused. Some companies provide additional cover for children's crisis events while others use a Severity Based Insurance assessment framework that allows them to pay out sooner on smaller crisis events and recurring claims later.
Finding a policy that focuses on your specific needs, for example focusing on advanced dementia, is where Sapience Financial can help.
How we can help
Crisis and Trauma Recovery insurance strategies are an important part of protecting yourself, your family, and your business from the financial risks and out-of-pocket expenses a serious sickness or injury can bring.
Contact us for a confidential chat about your needs.
Related: Types of Personal Insurance products we work with
Different types of risk protection insurances, provide protection for different life risks.
- Life & Terminal Illness - the basis of all protection strategies
- Income Protection - safeguarding your ability to continue to earn your income
- Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) - protecting against the long-term financial consequences of disability
- Crisis & Trauma Recovery - protecting against specified serious medical conditions (more a 'when' you need to claim than an 'if')
- Severity Based Insurance - designed to pay small claims sooner (Life, Crisis & TPD insurances in one)