Financial Impact of BC on Small Business

The aftermath of a year with Cancer.  My husband and I have had the worst year ever, and financially, we are just getting by.  We had spent our savings to move to Launceston, and had great expectations of a wonderful new life full of a great "life-style" and affordable living.  The other drawcard for us, was my husbands best friend lived in Launceston too, so after saying no for 7 years, I finally said yes, and we shifted.  It took twice as long for me to find a job, and then it wasnt full time, so the saving dwindled.  We had 2 cars we were paying off, credit card debt, and then 5 months later, I got Breast Cancer.  Oh yes, I had a small insurance policy that gave me $400 a week, better than nothing.  Then just as I completed all of my treatment, my husbands best friend died.  My poor husband has found it very difficult on his basic wage to be the Knight in Shining Armour for us and as renters, with no house to have sold to increase our income, we survived via a donation of $5,000 from family.  That has now gone.  We are just getting by.  Yes I have my health back, but financially, well there is no golden goose out there for us, no magic holiday, and I guess as low income worker, no financial assistance.  As for an idea of either of us ever being sick again, we just wouldnt have the money for it!  I really understand Leonie.  (All that money raised each year, and all we get at the end of it, is hopefully, a clear health .  Oh and sorry if I dont sound grateful to be well, of course, I am).

Hi,  I too have been offline for a while.  I understand all of the above.  I gave up my job to be classed Total and permanent disabled just so that we could gain my super and a little bit more.  I was 54 when diagnosed with secondary bc and had to wait until I turned 55 to access the super.  We sold our home and moved into our investment home.  Luckily we had some insurance cover and have coped fairly well.  Until my husband was diagnosed with heart failure.  He has been off work for 6 weeks (all paid sick leave- never took any sick days off -only to look after me during bc)  Now we are in the process of accessing his insurances - not easy and very stressful.  I am now more eager to return to work just to keep the coffers from becoming empty.  When I hear about my sisters/friends having huge supers to retire on I just sigh hoping to just get there to retirement.  Illness is so hard to deal with physically let alone financially.  I definately didn't sign up for BC but am grateful that we did have some insurance cover.  Doing without all those years has allowed us some security to get some health back. XLeonie

Thanks for your reply :-)  I am extremely pleased that you have come out the other side.  Similarly through family support we have managed to claw our way out of it - we were very close to having our farm sold and company liquidated!!   Does certainly put a different perspective on things though!

I have been reflecting on the whole situation since I put my first blog post up - I had sickness & accident insurance which was $400 per week. When I put in my claim, I claimed total disability for a certain amount of time and then "made the mistake" of saying that I could answer the phone to take orders from customers (maybe 1 a day). The insurance company rang me and mentioned that they didn't pay on partial disablement (which I was totally unaware) and that it only covered total disability but that they were happy for me to go back to my specialist and review the claim.  When I did and resubmitted it, even though my specialist had provided new dates for total disability, they rejected it on the basis that I had originally said that I could answer the phone. Even though I could do nothing else in our business such as drive the ute, tractor etc because I was able to do something the rest of it didn't count.  I had also delegated financial aspects to our accountant & financial advisor as mentally I was unable to deal with it, the insurance company's response was that I needed to have seen a psychologist at the time to be able to claim for any mental stress - was too stressed dealing with the surgeries etc to do that!! :-(    

Unfortunately I did not challenge the rejection of the claim as it was just too much to cope with - I really should have though!!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it has certainly given me plenty of insights into how to deal with insurance companies in the future - unfortunately my husband tore his bicep last year and was incapacitated farm wise for nearly 6 months - we certainly made sure the claim was totally correct but it still had a huge financial impact. Just to top it off, he was assaulted in May this year and sustained a fractured top jaw, eye socket and cheek - which meant he was out of action for nearly 8 weeks (we must have been extremely wicked in our past lives!!!) 

Certainly the financial aspects of any illness is a huge factor and one that causes in lots of cases, more stress that the illness itself.

My main tip for anyone is make sure you have adequate insurance cover, read the fine print of your insurance policies (our agent wasn't even aware that the illness didn't pay partial disability!!), think about the claim carefully before you lodge it and be prepared to challenge it if you need to.  

Bye Leanne :-)

Hi Robyn - thanks for your reply. We are certainly on the road to recovery and are very fortunate to have come out the other side.  Our situation was quite complicated but was very interesting at the time to have different responses from different banks - one put our payments "on hold" until we could get back on track and the other showed no sympathy, understanding or flexibility whatsoever. 

The bank we have just refinanced with are a total breath of fresh air and will sing their praises once it is all finalised :-) 

Leanne :-)

I am right by your side when you mention the word "cost" of having Breast Cancer.  I had $400 a week provided via my REST Super, via a small insurance part of that.  Which would have been ok, if we didnt have so many financial commitments, (debt),  and if we hadnt spent $10,000 moving to Tasmania just before.  We had donations from both sides of the family, one donation which saw us keep our heads above water and meant we didnt have to sell a car, was actually our life saver.  If we didnt have that, we would have possibly become bankrupt .  My husband just kept it together emotional as our number 1 and only source of income, he pushed himself through the worst year we had every had, complimented by the death of his best friend.  He either went to work, or once again, we wouldnt have survived financially.  But we hang on to our last dollars in the bank, and just survive, there is no fabulous holiday at the end of my year of Cancer and we are stuck well and truly renting .

We dont own a business, but my husband and I spent it all...... on Breast Cancer!