Diana’s Clements recent article on heart attack definitions in trauma insurance and the situation of a claimant in Australia, not getting paid for his heart attack, has put the spot light on the definition of a heart attack in trauma insurance here.

Looking into heart attack definitions in the market, from what you can presently buy, the quality level across heart attack definitions is quite surprising.

There has been plenty of contention about Sovereign heart attack definitions over the years. The rating for this would suggest it’s somewhat founded, with a 21% gap between it and the best rated heart attack definition.

As our largest life insurer, Sovereign also has the largest number of trauma policies on their books.

I was reading a policy working recently and it had a definition of death in it that I found humorous. Not that dying is humorous but the way it was written was.

Death/Dies - Means irreversibly dead with no possibility of resuscitation.

It was along the lines of doh! yeah already, it’s life cover, you’re dead it pays, what’s hard about that.

Thinking about it, we’ve had stories reported in the media about people being pronounced dead, then waking up in the morgue or the autopsy table, some hours/days later.

Medical Insurance Treatment Myths and Realities

My share of my blog post on Movember got a really good reply with some well thought out points that I come across with clients every day. Some are well founded and understood, others things have changed as has the approach. I felt it was worth a blog post by itself.

Susan’s original post:

Good on you Jon-Paul, admirable cause, but it is my view that Health insurance company don't do Health prevention, you have to pay for this type of health service even if you have a mastectomy your health insurance won't pay for a re-build for want a better word, apparently its plastic surgery and its not covered to have you looking normal after going through harrowing surgery and treatment...

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will have come to realise that there more to life insurance than just having a policy, dying and getting some money.

I have touched on this subject in other posts; this is another post that explores this much more deeply. Level premiums are a somewhat lesser used but potentially considerable part of your insurance planning.

Something that often pops up in the insurance industry and media, but what does it really mean for you.

Over insurance is where you are carrying more protection than you need and under insurance is when you have less than you need.

This is not about you having insurance or not, it is about you having the right type of insurance, at the right level for your situation.

Looking at the numbers, most households will have some form of insurance. It might be House, Contents or Car cover, it may also be Life or Medical Insurance.

What the numbers do tell us though, about 80% of households, possibly higher, will have exposure if someone was to be disabled and 75% of you would have to use the public system for medical treatment, or pay your own way for private medical treatment.

Exclusions and policy terms, another good reason to regularly review your insurance coverage

An unfortunate fact of life is; time marches on and we all get that little bit older. This also means the policy you took last year, five years or ten years ago may not be quite as appropriate now as it was at the time you first took it.

Life’s full of surprises though life cover insurance is usually a subject you do not get surprises in. Sovereign’s 2013 published causes for life claims, or rather reasons people died, makes for surprising reading.

In the graph from Sovereigns claims for the year ending 30 June 2013, The 70 plus age group isn’t surprising, cancer, heart or lungs are usual reasons people pass away. The first usually causing one of the second or third.

Stepping back from the older lives, things get a little different.