Your part in the tragedy (X) – “Actually fighting the battle”

by Allan Mearns

Monday, 27 September 2010

I was looking through the death notices from the "hatched, matched and dispatched" section of the newspaper the other day and was encouraged by seeing that I was not "mentioned in dispatches".

Apart from this positive start to the day, I couldn't help but notice some common themes. The first is that in most cases, the deaths have occurred after age 65 and often well after age 65.

The second of the common themes are the dreadful words "after a long battle with...". I could be boring and refer to the statistics and wouldn't you know it I am going to. Of all deaths each year 65% are due to heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and cancers. These are typically long term degenerative conditions that kill us slowly and insidiously. In the end that is.

We have clients who are fighting this battle today and have been for some time. Disregarding the life, disability and income cover that they have in place (as if you could) you should stop and think about how they are able to actually fight these dreadful battles. Not perhaps the mental and emotional fortitude, not perhaps the courage and determination to simply not give up but the actual "what do I do today to stop, defeat or at least slow down the onset of this illness or medical condition?'.

Most frequently this part of the battle is fought by other people who are dedicated, trained, experienced and resourced for the fight. Our medical professionals in general are the people on whom we depend for the most favourable outcome that we can hope for. If only we can access them.

What's the problem with access? Too many people needing and wanting to access the resources that have become too few, too poorly supported and too poorly designed. The public health system has become a safety net that in many cases is resting on the ground. The trend of looking for and of course paying for private health providers is not new nor is it likely to become redundant in the foreseeable future.

What should your private medical insurance achieve for you? It should provide the most certain access possible to medical advice, treatment and technology. Like the public system did 30 years ago, back when there was only $3,170,000 of us. Back in those days Robbie was Mayor of Auckland, Kiwi Keith was Governor General and Rob Muldoon was the Prime Minister. Does that help to put the passing of time in perspective for you?

That was then. This is now. Are you properly resourced to fight that same battle today?

More on the practicalities of this issue next time.

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