Enhancing life cover for severe illnesses with Discovery Life

“No-one expects to one day have to deal with developing a severe illness, yet having protective cover can be valuable in the event of a life-changing experience. It’s a helping hand at a critical time in someone’s life and that’s why we originally designed the Discovery Life Severe Illness benefit as part of our comprehensive offering,” says Gareth Friedlander, Discovery Life deputy chief executive.

“It’s all about enhancing the quality of people’s lives when it’s most needed. Our Severe Illness benefit is an award-winning offering (as voted by the Independent Clinical Oncology Network) — it’s the most comprehensive out there.”

Take care of what you value the most 

“Traditionally, life insurance cover for severe illnesses is assessed with a more ‘siloed’ approach, and generally covers things such as organ failure as a result of chronic conditions only.”

“After conducting research on how Covid affects the body, we developed ways to modernise what we already have to offer the enhanced level of protection people now need. This is where our Shared-value Insurance model is really quite meaningful — its dynamic design enables us to adapt to the times, building in added value and relevance at any point,” says Friedlander.

Introducing multi-organ failure protection

Covid can have serious consequences for a person’s cardiovascular, nervous, renal and respiratory systems — sometimes, all at once. So, we’ve developed a complementary benefit that takes the overall impact of this type of disease, and any others like it, into account, making it a market-first product in the country,” Friedlander says. “Now we have a product that can be used for all current and future multi-organ claims criteria assessment needs.

“Our newly developed Multi-Organ benefit category allows for tiered severity payments to be made for claims. So, the level of acute multi-organ failure at the time of a claim is assessed and based on this, a payment percentage of up to 100% will be made as a lump sum for the assured. This benefit will ensure that adequate cover is provided for the essential treatment and care clients will need while in hospital.

“The way we see this benefit really improving the lives of our customers going forward is to be added to a comprehensive life policy, in particular, the Capital Disability and Income Continuation benefits,” says Friedlander.

“It will help to cover unforeseen expenses that aren’t typically paid for by a medical aid plan or gap cover. and can help fund any additional cost needs.

“This not only makes a life insurance portfolio more comprehensive, but it also makes it relevant for today’s needs in the most beneficial way — for policyholders and those who are dearest to them.”

This article was paid for by Discovery Life.