Trauma Cover
Trauma Cover provides a lump sum payment should you suffer one of the covered conditions. Covered conditions are by nature serious and potentially life threatening and, as a result, can have a significant financial impact. Trauma Cover is designed to help alleviate this financial impact. The lump sum can help reduce debt, purchase specialised equipment, pay for home modifications, provide additional care, create an investment fund to generate ongoing income, or enable business ownership to be restructured, among other things. The purpose of the funds is entirely yours to decide.
Early payment of Life Cover benefit or a benefit on its own
You have the choice to select accelerated Trauma Cover which means in the event of a claim all or part of your Life Cover benefit is paid out. Alternatively, you can select a stand-alone benefit which pays a lump sum that does not reduce any other benefit you might be covered for. The accelerated benefit option is less expensive than the stand-alone benefit option.
Cover for your children
You have automatic Trauma Cover of $50,000 for each of your children, from 4 months old until their nineteenth birthday, which is payable in addition to your Trauma Cover. This cover can then be converted into a full benefit without medical assessment within 90 days of your child’s nineteenth birthday.
Buying back claimed benefits
You can purchase an additional Life Cover buy back option which allows you to buy back any Life Cover which is reduced by an accelerated trauma claim, provided the life assured survives twelve months following the claim (or, for certain conditions, six months following the claim). You can also purchase an additional Trauma Cover buy-back option which allows you to repurchase the Trauma Cover that has been claimed, provided that the life assured survives twelve months following the claim.
Covered Trauma conditions
Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia
Angioplasty
Aortic Surgery
Aplastic Anaemia
Benign Brain Tumour
Benign Spine Tumour
Blindness
Cancer
Cardiomyopathy
Chronic Kidney Failure
Chronic Liver Failure
Chronic Lung Failure
Coma
Coronary Artery Surgery
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
Deafness
Diabetes
Encephalitis
Heart Attack
Heart Valve Replacement
HIV – medically or occupationally acquired
Intensive Care
Loss of Independent Existence
Loss of Limb and Sight
Loss of Limbs
Loss of Speech
Major Burns
Major Head Trauma
Meningitis
Motor Neurone Disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Muscular Dystrophy
Open Heart Surgery
Organ Transplant
Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Paralysis
Parkinson’s Disease
Peripheral Neuropathy
Pneumonectomy
Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
Severe Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Stroke
Systemic Sclerosis
Terminal Illness
Total and Permanent Disability
Other benefits may include;
Partial payments
Bringing you home
Treatment away from home
Expert assistance
Diagnosis assistance
Special events increase
Future proofing the value of your benefits
Optional increase benefit
Premium holidays
Loyalty discounts
* The above are examples only and may vary depending on which company your cover is with.
Trauma Cover
In my opinion, this is one of the most vital insurance benefits you could have in addition to your base life insurance cover. We are living longer and medical technology is so rapidly advancing that we are surviving longer and therefore life insurance is not being paid out, so Trauma Insurance Cover is being paid out (if you have it that is).
If you do not have some form of this cover which is also known as Crisis Cover, Critical Care, Trauma Cover, Trauma Insurance and some other variations of names, but it is basically the same.
What you do have to be careful for is that there are also two variations of the cover which is basic and comprehensive. The basic variation may cover around 8 to 12 conditions while the comprehensive cover could cover around 40 conditions so be careful if you are purchasing this cover through direct channels based on price.
Severe Trauma Cover
Severe Trauma Cover provides a lump sum payment should you suffer one of the covered conditions. Covered conditions are by nature serious and potentially life threatening and, as a result, can have a significant financial impact. Severe Trauma Cover is designed to help alleviate this financial impact. The lump sum can help reduce debt, purchase specialised equipment, pay for home modifications, provide additional care, create an investment fund to generate ongoing income, or enable business ownership to be restructured, among other things. The purpose of the funds is entirely yours to decide.
How it differs from Trauma Cover
While Trauma Cover’s exhaustive list of covered conditions and smaller partial payments for less severe conditions provides an excellent level of protection, companies recognise it can also be quite expensive. By focusing on covering conditions only once the impact is severe and will have the biggest impact on your way of life and ability to earn an income, it has been possible for Severe Trauma Cover to be priced significantly cheaper than standard Trauma Cover.
Severe Trauma Cover offers the majority of the same conditions as Trauma Cover, and most with identical criteria while some conditions such as cancer, heart attack and stroke require a greater level of severity before a claim would be paid. There are also some additional conditions under Severe Trauma Cover which are not specifically covered under Trauma Cover, such as severe congestive cardiac failure, for example.
Combining covers for greater protection
Severe Trauma Cover works best when combined with Trauma Cover to provide a severity-based insurance solution. Smaller payments can be made for less severe events under Trauma Cover while suffering a Severe Trauma Condition will almost always result in both the Trauma and Severe Trauma Cover benefits being paid. Early payment of Life Cover benefit Severe Trauma Cover is accelerated, which means in the event of a claim all or part of your Life Cover benefit is paid out.
Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia
Advanced AIDS
Aplastic Anaemia
Blindness
Cancer
Cardiomyopathy
Chronic Kidney Failure
Chronic Liver Failure
Chronic Lung Failure
Cognitive Impairment
Coma
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
Deafness
Diabetes
Encephalitis
Heart Attack
Intensive Care
Loss of Independent Existence
Loss of Limb and Sight
Loss of Limbs
Loss of Speech
Major Burns
Major Head Trauma
Meningitis
Motor Neurone Disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Muscular Dystrophy
Organ Transplant
Paralysis
Parkinson’s Disease
Peripheral Neuropathy
Primary Pulmonary Hypertension
Severe Congestive Cardiac Failure
Severe Peripheral Vascular Disease
Stroke
Systemic Sclerosis
The above benefits are summary examples only and may not be a full list of benefits which may be available to you. The exact types of cover and benefits will change depending on the insurer and the specific policy. Please contact us for a comprehensive list of benefits available.