Zurich has released the first set of data that quantifies the cost of care related to an extensive range of health conditions and has created an interactive client hub for use by advisers when having conversations with clients about the need for life insurance.
The data, presented in a whitepaper – The Cost of Care – draws together aggregate research in the area of injury and disease for 65 health conditions across 11 body systems and provides estimates of the direct and indirect cost to individuals and families in the event of a serious injury or illness.
The whitepaper stated the total health expenditure in 2015/16 was $170.4 billion, with more than 80 per cent of that cost picked up by Federal and State Governments, and the remaining $30 billion paid for individual Australians.
This latter cost was twice the amount funded by private health insurers and did not include any indirect costs in the form of income lost by an individual and their families and caregivers.
Zurich Risk Strategy Specialist, Danni Visser said advice and insurance strategies to date had dealt with the issues of debt repayment, income replacement, children’s education and funeral expenses as they were easy to quantify but the cost of care was ‘the missing link’.
“Quantifying the financial and time cost of recovery is an important element of most life insurance advice methodologies, but up until now it has been hard to get accurate, up-to-date data”, Visser said, adding that while research is available it has to be drawn from disparate sources in different formats and can be out of date.
“The pace of advancement in medical diagnoses and treatments makes the currency of data even more crucial, and with this resource advisers have the latest data in one source, in a consistent, easy to follow format”, she said.
Zurich Risk Strategy Specialist, Adam Crabbe said the research and the client hub would assist advisers when discussing insurance needs with clients by providing a basis for their recommendations.
“By giving clients a greater understanding of the basis for advice recommendations, they are more likely to engage with, and appreciate the value of, that advice,” Crabbe said.
“Advisers and clients can use the calculator together, exploring the financial and time impact of particular health conditions,” he said, adding that advisers can tailor the information from the 100 page research paper for individual use with clients.
Well done Zurich Life. This is an excellent and much needed initiative for our industry. This would have been an expensive project to fund too. With ongoing funding cuts / diversion of medical statistical research which is in turn is leading to data being dated, the timing is perfect given our industry is under extreme scrutiny right now. Well done team!
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