One Option For Parents With A Very Sick Child Is Hospice Care

Category: Finance, Insurance.

The thought of insuring a child s life is not something many people wish to entertain. The parents consider the need to protect their child against financial difficulties should anything happen to them.

When it comes to life insurance parents deal with themselves, particularly in advancing years but also especially when they have begin to have their own children. There are funeral expenses, debts to pay up, education to continue, homes to secure and a lifestyle to fund. What many parents do not consider though, is the sad but too often occurrence of a child developing a long term illness. Parents may even plan ahead for the unpredictability of contracting a long term illness to protect the family concerns and ease the burden on their children. In the hopeful event of remission or recovery this will still entail the parent having lots of time off work, travelling expenses backwards and forwards to hospitals and clinics. Should the child thankfully remain perfectly healthy throughout their young years, they will then have the added benefit of continued cover, should an illness develop later in life. Should the unthinkable happen, there are still expensive funeral arrangements to be made.

However, it is well worth considering that one in every 600 children under 15 contracts cancer in the UK every year. That s 1700 children who need their parents constantly by their side through treatment, not at work trying to keep up an income. It doesn t sound like a high risk but it does equate to 1700 new cases every year. Many parents like to try overseas treatment when new discoveries are made. However, these attempts are very rarely funded by the NHS. The opinion is widely held that without a good prognosis any avenue to prolong life has to be tried.

Critical illness cover on a life insurance policy would fund this. They can be obtained through private doctors but at a price. Also to be considered is the fact that many life prolonging drugs new on the market are not available on the NHS. A price that life insurance would cover. The incidents of childhood Leukaemia have changed little since. Fifty years ago, a diagnosis of Leukaemia was a veritable death sentence for children and 95% of them would die.

However, the good news is that, will all the medical advancements to date, the statistics now show that 75% of children with this disease survive at least 5 years after diagnosis. Contrary to popular opinion, hospices are not sad, depressing places. One option for parents with a very sick child is hospice care. They are cheerful and full of life. A children s hospice will also accommodate the child s family, making them all at home. The staff go out of their way to stimulate the child s senses, keep them happy and comfortable as well as being qualified to administer all medical requirements.

They know how important it is for a sick child to have their family around them and to continue as near a normal existence as possible. Counselling is available in hospices for children and family and friends. This has the added advantage of boosting the immune system. All hospices are charitable organisations and run entirely on donations. Having a sick or dying child in the family is traumatic for all. Virtually no parents would be willing to sit back and watch all this care being ploughed into their child without feeling the type of gratitude that they feel the need to repay. However, when there are siblings involved a degree of normality has to be kept for their sake.

Life insurance for the child with critical illness cover would assist with this. Add to this the financial pressures involved and stress levels are dangerously high and the parents are less able to cope.

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