There are a wide range of medical insurance plans in the market, each structured in a way to meet differing levels of need and premium costs. One type is the Shared Cover medical plan offered by Southern Cross (e.g. RegularCare).
Shared Cover equals 80% / 20%
Shared Cover means Southern Cross and you each pay some of the costs of the healthcare services you receive. The plan provides an 80% contribution towards cancer care, surgical treatment, specialist consultations, diagnostic imaging, tests, recovery, support, and day-to-day GP treatment. You self-fund the other 20%. This is not onerous for smaller medical treatment issues, but for major surgical and other interventions (e.g., knee and hip replacements, expensive chemotherapy drugs and cancer treatment) the cost that you need to meet will be substantially higher.
Furthermore, the shared cover plan caps the benefits at modest levels: chemotherapy drugs for cancer are limited to $48,000 per claims year for PHARMAC-approved chemotherapy drugs and also includes just $8,000 per claims year for non-PHARMAC approved, Medsafe-indicated, chemotherapy drugs.
Shared Cover medical insurance as part of your employment package
If your employer offers limited Shared Cover medical insurance as part of your employment package, or you have personally had such cover for a long time and are reluctant to move, there are ways that you can dramatically improve your protection plan to obtain more comprehensive cover for higher-end, more expensive medical treatments.
Get supplementary cover at a good price
One innovative insurer (Partners Life) provides a Medical Insurance Multi Policy Excess Benefit that enables you to retain your existing Shared-Cover Plan and supplementing it with higher-order cover for more serious medical conditions that could become extremely expensive if covered by the Shared Cover Plan alone. The 80% payment made by Southern Cross is treated as fulfilment of the excess on the Partners Life Private Medical Cover, meaning that you can claim for the difference that you would otherwise have needed to pay out of your own pocket! Furthermore, the cost of this supplementary cover is very competitive.
If you wish to learn more, please feel free to contact us. We are always looking for innovative solutions to best meet our clients’ needs.
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