Insurance addresses long term concerns, what about today's concerns?

I read the sidebar to Jane Hemeon's article with interest. The article touched on the costs associated with critical or long term care, and also opened the question as to what government funding support for healthcare will be available. The article and the sidebar illustrate well that we need to be attentive to the future peril we may face with respect to healthcare.

Insurance products are available to finance extreme healthcare costs Resources exist,, both public and private to provide care. At MedExtra, we have witnessed that Canadians and boomers face an additional challenge.

As individuals, we are ill-prepared and ill-equipped to manage not only our critical or long term health needs, but also the more mundane issues that our aging population faces increasingly. With an average delay twice as long as is clinically sound, Canadians need to have someone advocating for them when they encounter issues as simple as back pain, emotionionally draining as cancer or coronary artery disease.

While this need will certainly be amplified as the CI and LTC policies are exercised, it is more and more apparent in Canadian's lives today.

Insurance companies are beginning to take recognize this need, and together with corporate Canada, have an important role to play in our collective future health.

Canadian twist on American phenomenon

An article in Risk & Insurance with interest.

The phenomenon is present in Canada, but it also has it's own "Canadian twist".

As a result of limited funding for medical care throughout the country ( if you compare the average Canadian with the average insured American), the type of issue that may keep an employee or executive from productive work includes much more mundane issues which have greater impacts in Canada vs. the US.

A survey of treatment & care across the country in 2005 demonstrated that on average, Canadians are treated within a time delay that is TWICE as long as is clinically reasonable!

The insurance industry is beginning to recognize that in Canada, while longer term risks/threats are protected by the insurer, shorter term medical problems can languish and the insurance companies (who do not pay for primary care here) - are starting to search for how they can play a role.

The article is fascinating, read it here.