Cancer and heart disease constituted 44% of death and disability claims paid by insurance provider Liberty in 2017, says Liberty Risk Product Development head Henk Meintjies.

Cancer remains the leading cause for claims at 24.3%, followed by cardiac and cardiovascular conditions at 19.8% of all claims.

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death in South Africa society. This is reflected in Liberty’s claim statistics and has been a recurring trend for the past three years. While cancer treatment is widely available and effective, the best outcomes are achieved if the cancer is detected early, notes Liberty medical officer Dr Thabani Nkwanyana.

“Cancer affected all age and social groups, constituting 16% of all claims for millennials, 21% for young parents, 26% for established providers and 25% for empty nesters.The three main cancers were female breast cancer, prostate cancer and colon cancer.”

Further, 23% of claims for men were related to cardiovascular diseases and 20% to cancer, while 23% of claims for women were associated with cardiovascular diseases and, significantly, 32% with cancer-related diseases.

Breast cancer constituted the most significant cancer burden for women, with 39% of all female cancer claims related to breast cancer compared with 10% of claims related to colon and rectal cancers. This means that 12.8% of all female death and disability claims were breast- cancer-related.

Conversely, 63% of the cardiovascular disease claims made for men were related to coronary artery disease and myocardial infarctions. This means that 14.49% of all death and disability claims made for men were related to heart diseases and heart attacks.

However, a significant finding that the claims statistics revealed was that 68.8% of claims were made for men, while only 31.2% of claims were made for women.

“This highlights the insurance gap that exists for females,” says Meintjies.

The total amount paid for valid claims in 2017 was R4.47-billion; R3.24-billion was paid following deaths, R691-million was paid to help claimants make lifestyle adjustments following a critical illness diagnosis or treatment, while more than R525-million was paid for loss of income protection.

laims made by millennials, people in their twenties or thirties, were mainly for retrenchments, at 17%, followed by cancer, at 16%.

In the young parents segment, claims made for cancer diseases comprised 21%, cardiovascular diseases 13% and retrenchment 11%.

This segment showed a marked difference between male and female claims, however, with 34% of female claims made related to cancer, while only 12% of claims for men were associated with cancer-related diseases. Conversely, 19% of claims for men in this segment were related to cardiovascular diseases, while only 4% of claims for women were related tosuch diseases.

Meanwhile, 26% of claims made by people in the established-provider age segment were related to cancer, while 20% of claims constituted cardiovascular diseases. However, retrenchment claims constituted only 4% of claims.