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Sun City – The firefighters battling a raging fire in Cape Town should get affordable critical illness cover from an insurance provider, according to Momentum’s chief medical officer.
Dr Adela Osman told Fin24 on the side line of the Risk Summit in Sun City that there was adequate cover available in the industry for all South Africans, no matter their income levels.
Firefighters have been fighting day and night to quell a fire spanning from Muizenberg to Hout Bay and the Cape Town community has rallied around them with support, such as supplying food and drinks.
Fire burns more than just cosmetic
“Generally, life insurance or critical illness benefits cover for things like diseases … but it also covers accidental injuries, like burns,” Osman said. “Burns can have a big impact on lifestyle, especially severe burns.
“The damages are not purely cosmetic, so people have to go through extensive rehabilitation processes in order to either gain function or range of movement in those areas,” she said.
She said there were definitely options for people in the lower sectors in terms of risk. “But for me personally, it’s all about awareness,” she said. “People need to become aware as to why they need this cover.”
Osman said that in the lower sectors in this country there were lots of incidents of burns due to paraffin lamps falling over.
“Those sectors are quite focused on funeral cover,” she said. “It’s a cultural thing, I suppose, and I think there needs to be an awareness campaign, especially in these areas, to make people realise why they need cover.”
Listen to the full interview, in which Osman discusses the journey of critical illness cover over the past decade, a subject she will speak about later on Tuesday.
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* Fin24 was hosted by Momentum at the Momentum Risk Summit 2015.
