Imagine the Impact
Chances are, you know someone who's been touched by cancer, or some other serious illness. Saw them struggle with fear and pain, watched them battle fatigue and nausea.
What you might not have seen is the enormous impact on day-to-day life, on managing financially, and to what extent they were forced to make adjustments to their lifestyle and future goals. Think of all you do in a day and ask yourself:
If a serious illness kept me from work, if I was unable to do everyday
tasks for weeks, months or even longer, how would I cope –
physically, emotionally and financially?
You might make certain assumptions. Below to the left, you'll see the usual suspects - and the perhaps surprising realities.
I've got group insurance through work that will pay enough to get me through.
Realities:
My provincial health plan will cover all the expenses if I'm sick.
Realities:
My needs are pretty simple. I think I'll manage okay at home while I recover.
Realities:
Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.
~ Zelda Fitzgerald
It's not fun to think about all this. So we allow ourselves a bit of denial for a few reasons:
- The demands of our day-to-day lives take precedence (and there are so many!).
- We assume government health plans will cover the costs of our care and recovery.
- We find it uncomfortable to discuss topics of failing health and mortality.
- We believe there's not much we can do about it anyway. To quote one of the women from the discussion group, “After all, there's no such thing as “recovery insurance”, is there?”.
In fact, there are options for care and recovery you are likely to want that are not covered by government or employee health plans.
And there is indeed such a thing as “recovery insurance”.
You have choices.
