PartnersPapers
Partners Papers
Issue On
Ma
Not all policies
are created
equal?
Another important difference between health insurance providers
Following the house insurance issues that
arose out of the Christchurch earthquakes, you
probably won’t be surprised to hear that not all
policies are equal and that selecting an insurance
partner to protect you and your family or business
is not just about paying the cheapest premium.
There are significant differences in the benefits
provided by different providers, even within the
same class of policy, which may mean reduced
or limited benefits on claim or worst of all, no
claim at all.
injury which leaves you disabled and unlikely ever to be able to
is cover for drugs that are not funded by PHARMAC. In some
resume your occupation, and best of all you do not then need
cases, the best treatment option is not funded and the cost
to pay extra for total and permanent disability cover in addition
of that treatment could be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
to paying for your trauma cover. This built-in TPD feature is not
Having your insurance policy cover those costs if you ever needed
standard across the rest of the industry.
them is pretty important – but a number of policies provide no
or very limited coverage for drugs if they are not PHARMAC
Suffice it to say, given our very strong focus on product value,
funded. Partners Life’s Private Medical Policy covers the costs of
every one of our products has unique features and benefits
recommended drugs, regardless of whether they are PHARMAC
which might not be available from other product providers. But
funded or not.
in addition to those features and benefits it is also important
to remember that we also have some unique features that
When it comes to Trauma Cover we do some special things too.
apply to all of our policies, irrespective of the mix of benefits
All clients get free trauma cover of $50,000 on their dependent
and coverages included in the policy. Things like our client
children aged between 4 months and 19 years old. No one likes
loyalty discount, guaranteed upgrade feature, premium holiday
to think about poor health, disability or serious injury happening
and suspension options, automatic CPI increases regardless of
Let’s consider health insurance for one minute. Many health
to children, but it does, and there can be big expenses involved,
any changes in your health, automatic inflation adjustment of
insurance providers’ policies are not guaranteed! The insurance
not to mention time off work. Having some insurance money
monthly claims on each anniversary and our ‘if its grey we pay’
company has the right to make unilateral changes to existing
paid out can significantly ease the financial burden during such a
and ‘fair and reasonable’ claims philosophies.
clients’ policies – they can change or simply take away benefits.
difficult time.
Not all products are created equal but you can rest assured with
How would you feel if, after paying premiums loyally for many
years, you discovered that just when you needed to claim, a
Something else we do automatically is include total and
product value being at the forefront of our minds, we are going
treatment cost previously covered was now excluded? All Partners
permanent disability as a trauma condition for free. This creates
to be continually looking for ways to increase the value of your
Life policies are guaranteed, so while we will make your product
a safety net, paying your trauma cover benefit even if you don’t
policy over time – and you don’t need to go anywhere or do
better we can never take benefits away!
suffer a defined trauma condition but you do suffer an illness or
anything to benefit from that increasing value.
How we review and upgrade our policies
anything new that we need to add or improve on. Our product