Medical Catastrophe: in a league of its own

Medical Catastrophe might sound like the latest gratuitous American reality TV show, but the Prefsure Life product bearing the macabre title is far from low rate.

By winning this year’s Money Management/ Dexx&r Adviser Choice Risk Award for best trauma offering, the product has become one of the most praised risk insurance creations in the award’s history, having beaten its competitors in the trauma category for the past two years running.

Long-time researcher for the awards Dexx&r managing director Mark Kachor said while it is always difficult to find one product superior across all three assessment criteria — price, definitions and features — Prefsure’s product, although not the cheapest on the market, offers excellent definitions at good value for money. He was particularly impressed with the product’s definitions, saying it was “comparable to the top echelons of products in the market place.”

“Across the whole range of scenarios, like the type of injury suffered, age and gender, the definitions of this product seem to be clearer and marginally more inclusive than its competitors.”

The ace in the pack is the product’s cancer definitions according to Prefsure Life product manager Tim Tez. “Cancer makes up around about two-thirds of all claims on trauma product, so it’s very important to have a strong definition for it,” says Tez.

“I mean, we don’t have any low level exclusions on some types of leukaemia, we don’t have any low level prostate cancer exclusions either, and prostate cancer’s obviously a big risk for males, particularly in the 50-plus category.”

Kachor agrees that Prefsure’s cancer definitions are sensitive to different forms of the disease. “With prostate cancer for example, if you get it early it can be extremely aggressive and life threatening. Because the incidence of getting prostate cancer at an early age is small, to have a definition that covers it is obviously very beneficial to those people.”

Sensitivity to adviser feedback also boosts Medical Catastrophe’s superiority says Tez. “For us, the advisers design the product, and that’s what really sets us apart.”

Recently, a definition was upgraded to remove an artery blockage requirement on policies around triple vessel angioplasties, a type of heart problem that only accounts for 2 per cent of angioplasties. Tez says the change was made at the request of advisers. “Clients and advisers certainly don’t want to get into a situation where they’re arguing at claim time about a blockage,” he says.

Finalists for this category were Citigroup with its Life Care Trauma product and AMP with its Trauma Cover Premier. “AMP has traditionally had a very strong product, it covers more illnesses than anyone else and has been a market leader for several years,” says Kachor.

“When you balance those feature against price it becomes a pretty competitive offering.”

The Citigroup product also scored highly.

“Both have a comprehensive range of features, but when you combine those features with price, you’ll find the Citigroup product is a little more price competitive.”

Medical Catastrophe won the award in 2003 and 2004 under the name of Lumley Life, which was acquired by Prefsure in 2004.