How to protect your child from health risks?

How to protect your child from health risks?

Quality education for a child is one of the main conditions for its successful future. There is only one important point - the health of the child. If education is more or less clear, how to protect your baby from health risks?

We discussed this important topic at the webinar with doctors and insurers:

Kateryna Pashkova, doctor-therapist of Ingo Medical Center

Oksana Besedina, Head of the Pediatric Department of Ingo Medical Center

Roman Babych, Partner Network Project Development Manager, TAS Life

Natalia Stykhalska, Head of Marketing, TAS Life

At the beginning of the webinar, experts reported on how the situation has changed with the incidence of children and the prevention of morbidity since the beginning of the pandemic. Do parents pay enough attention to their children's health today? What mistakes are made?

Unfortunately, the number of cases of childhood Covid-19, influenza, viral pneumonia, measles is growing rapidly - these statistics are relevant for both European countries and Ukraine. Quarantine measures and complete isolation initially led to a significant reduction in the incidence of children. But the immune system was not able to "train" due to lack of challenges, which later manifested itself in an increase in morbidity, complications of respiratory diseases.

The situation is stabilizing, doctors say, but it is important to do everything possible to protect the child from risks. And the main role in this is played by disease prevention!

In pediatrics, prevention has the most important function. Mandatory preventive examinations of a child under one year of age are not ignored by parents. But when the baby gets a little older, medical examinations are often neglected. And to acquaintance to all parents of schoolboys the certificate 086 / o try to receive deceivers. At different ages, the child's body undergoes certain changes that need to be addressed. This is what this annual checkup is designed for, they should not be neglected.

Physicians often face situations where the pathology could be treated conservatively in the initial stages, but after the lost time had to operate. Oksana Besedina gives examples from practice:

- A 12-year-old child was discovered for the first time that she can hardly see with one eye. This is a congenital pathology that can be treated with timely diagnosis, but time was lost! In another patient, with grade II scoliosis with chronic back pain at age 14, it was possible to detect shortening of one leg at the age of 6 and compensate for this with insoles for shoes. Unfortunately, there are many such examples. And recently, preventive examinations reveal the initial stages of diabetes in children.

For each age there are clearly defined recommendations for examinations: consult a pediatrician, get this list, follow the schedule of medical examinations. This way you will not lose precious time and will be able to save the child from troubles. This is the minimum that parents must follow! And you can protect your child from other health risks that could not have been prevented by prevention, such as injury. Of course, this will not save you from unpleasant accidents, but it will save you from stress for the family budget, and parents will definitely have the money and the opportunity to provide quality and timely treatment.

Throughout the civilized world, the issue is resolved through insurance. In Ukraine, more and more families are starting to use these opportunities every year. This airbag is not only a protection against health problems, but also a way to ensure a stable future for the child, to accumulate initial capital for education, housing, travel.

The practice is still unusual for many Ukrainians, so it raises many questions:

- Why insure the health and safety of children?

Life insurance is a small financial investment, small, but it provides protection against more catastrophic costs that may be incurred by a family or individual. Insurance makes it possible in the event of a case to transfer this financial responsibility - thoughts, costs, needs that may arise - to the insurance company.

Example from TAS Life practice:

In 2020, the share of insured events related to child injuries is 35%. And for 9 months of 2021 - 31%, when we are just entering the winter. However, more than 69% of cases are related to diseases. There is something to think about.

If we talk about life and health insurance, then each of the risks that occurred in the event of this event is covered separately by the insurance company. When this case happens, especially serious, and you need somewhere to look for money for surgery, expensive treatment, then people start selling, mortgaging everything possible to gain time, to save a loved one. Unfortunately, we often see ads on social networks, on TV, in public transport about raising funds for the treatment of a child.

- I really want every person, child to have the opportunity to protect. And the families did not think about where to find the money, but were convinced that this responsibility will be borne by the insurance company, - said Roman Babich.

- What do doctors think about this? What is the situation in practice?

In fact, for a doctor, when a patient with any disease is treated, it does not matter whether he is insured or not, what insurance he has. Because there is a disease, there is a treatment protocol. And you need help.

- On the other hand, often when the patient has insurance, it helps us a little bit. For example, a doctor prescribes certain examinations or follow-up examinations. When a patient pays with his own bill, he considers this point, especially when it comes to private clinics. But if the patient is insured, spending money on these things becomes easier, so the quality of treatment is slightly higher. Such a patient will not save on important things. Because our task is to identify risk factors in him or say that they do not exist, to give recommendations for maintaining health and to plan some volume of preventive examinations in the future, - says Kateryna Pashkova, a physician at Ingo Medical Center.

- Suppose a person has taken out an insurance policy, and her child is ill, what happens next, how does the insurance work?

Insurance will work differently in different cases.

Speaking of a life insurance company:

first of all, you need to call and report the occurrence of the insured event: the child fell or fell ill, was hospitalized, and so on. In this case, the insurance company records and advises what types of documents should be provided so that there are no delays between the submission of documents and their receipt.

Therefore, life insurance is the payment of money when a person has documents. For example, if it is inpatient treatment, a discharge epicrisis is required, that the person was in the hospital on certain dates, what manipulations were performed, or whether there was surgery. Insurance coverage, which can be chosen in advance, can compensate for hospitalization by ambulance, a person in intensive care, and so on.

If we talk about voluntary health insurance:

all these things - an ambulance call, where a person is hospitalized, etc. - are handled by the contact center of the insurance company. This is done in order to be treated in the clinic that has a contractual relationship with your insurance company. That is, such insurance protects only from medical expenses. And in a situation where a person has paid for something himself, has official checks, he can get a refund. Thus, a person does not spend anything, but receives nothing but medical care.

Voluntary health insurance is present in Ukraine, but is actively developed only in corporate practice, as part of the employee's social package.

And life and health insurance, unlike voluntary health insurance, is the payment of monetary compensation according to the sum insured. You only need to have documents on hand about the fact that the person was treated. For example, if a child with a fracture is injured, a consultation certificate from the trauma center is enough.

In any case, insurance is a really profitable option for prudent parents who take care of unplanned expenses in advance. Because parental care, unfortunately, is not able to fully protect children from disease and accidents. And whatever program you choose, keep in mind the mandatory preventive examinations for both children and adults!