‘Young adults affected by cancer’
Insurer says claims over illness are rising
More young South African in their 20s and 30s are being afflicted with or dying from cancer‚ often because of late diagnosis.
This is the word from financial services group Liberty‚ which revealed at a media briefing yesterday that cancer was the main cause of claims across all age groups in South Africa last year.
It said 15.2% of claims – mainly for life and loss of income – came from young people‚ while 24.4% of claims emanated from young parents – in their 20s and 30s.
Liberty paid out R4.3-billion in claims last year, 13% more than in 2015.
Head of risk product development at Liberty‚ Henk Meintjies‚ said: “This amounts to R17-million every working day. These statistics reveal concerning trends in health and lifestyle risks, with cancer and cardiac and cardiovascular conditions, being the main causes.
“The cancer stats are relevant to the insured population‚ which reveals a high incidence of breast cancer for females.
“It is the number one claim for women‚ while prostrate cancer is the top claim among men.
“The South African stats of breast and prostrate cancer mirror our own claims.”
Liberty’s chief medical officer‚ Dr Philippa Peil‚ said poor diets‚ physical inactivity‚ stress and smoking were fuelling cancer in SA.
“Given the increasing rate of cancer claims‚ it is important for one to take serious care of one’s body and to identify any serious illnesses as early as possible.
“Young people believe they are immune to cancer‚ they are leaving diagnosis when it’s too late‚” said Peil.
Claims related to retrenchment was highest among young people, at 11.7%.
Meintjies attributed this to the “last-in-first-out” policy employed by many companies when they retrench workers.