Health & Medical Insurance

Yes the Public Health system will meet your requirements.  Are you sure about that?  Kiwis are not turned away from hospitals in NZ if they don’t have insurance.  A heart attack ensures prompt treatment.  It’s different is you have severe arthritis and are unable to walk because of the pain.  There are too many stories of people ‘managing’ their pain and not even being put on waiting lists for knee replacements.  Likewise there are too many stories about people who cannot have the opportunity to try new drugs because they are too expensive for Pharmac to fund.

Don’t be dismayed with the Government or Pharmac.  Medical costs are soaring.  There is a limited amount of tax available to meet the many requirements all Governments need to provide to the people.  The wealthier the country the more a Government can provide.  New Zealand doesn’t dig minerals out of the ground and sell ore to China the way Australia can, nor does it sell oil the way oil producing countries can.  There’s less profit in farming sheep and cows than there is in exporting a valued raw material like iron ore, coal, or oil.  New Zealand is remote so it is costly to import goods.

Pharmac needs to choose if it will pay more than say $150,000 for a young man who is terminally ill to be given a drug that may extend his life for another year compared to supporting thousands of people who need medicine for diabetes or high blood pressure or cholesterol.  While it seems heartless to the family of the terminally ill man it makes sense from an objective and realistic view.  Where can the money be best spent.

After trauma cover a health insurance policy that covers non Pharmac approved drugs is strongly recommended.

Note: Very few health insurance policies cover non Pharmac approved drugs.  You don’t want this benefit combined with a health policy that pays for doctors’ visits or prescription charges because you’d be muddling up insurance for daily events you can manage to pay for with events that you cannot afford to pay for unless there was a serious impact on your current investment and savings programme.

To request a quote or more information >
 

Dominion Post Article - 7 November 2014
One in three people requiring elective surgery are being turned away from waiting lists to meet Government targets. The research published in the New Zealand Medical Journal shows 36% of more than 1,200 hip and knee patients in Northland and Hawkes Bay referred for a publicly funded operation by their surgeon were knocked back because they did not meet the "financial  threshold". Many were in severe pain and were significantly disabled. A Wellington woman, age 66 had to mortgage her home to pay for a privately funded operation costing $26,000. for a hip operation because she couldn't put up with the continuous pain.

Christchurch Press Article - May 2009
A 37 year old Parklands mother has to pay to receive a drug for a rare lung cancer not Government funded through Pharmac. She is paying more than $5,200 per treatment for Avastin a drug that extends life expectancy by reducing the size of tumours. She will need four sessions.

Dominion Post - 5 May 2016
Manurewa father 31 is one of those fundraising to pay for his Keytuda treatment, after doctors found an avocado sized melanoma growth in his stomach. He has been told that without the drug, he has only six to 12 months to live.
Update August 2016: Keytruda is now on the Pharmac approved drugs list. The point is that there are insurance companies providing medical insurance that will cover non Pharmac approved drugs. Contact us for a quote.