Lifebroker Asks - What Are My Chances of Suffering Critical Illness?

The likelihood of us as Australians suffering from a critical illness is shockingly high. Looking into specific illness's that predominantly affect Australians, there are some surprising statistics.

Osteoporosis affects one in two women, and one in three men, over the age of 60.

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) claims a life in Australia every 10 minutes.

1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will develop coronary heart disease in their life.

Diabetes affects more than 430,000 Australians.

Nearly 80,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year, which equates to an average risk of one in three men, and one in four women, being directly affected by cancer.

56% of Australians are overweight or obese.

With our rapidly ageing population, by 2021, the number of people in Australia with some type of arthritis will be 4.2 million or 18.6% (according to Dynamic Fitness Concepts's Australia Health Statistics).

The prevalence of asthma in Australia is amongst the highest in the world: between 10% and 15% of children and between 10% and 12% of adults have asthma.

One out of every five Australians [about 20%] will experience some form of mental illness each year. Three out of every ten [about 3 %] will be seriously affected.

Reading these statistics can be frightening. It appears that we'll either end up with a mental illness or cancer or heart disease. Maybe all three. Maybe we won't end up with them, but asthma or diabetes instead.

Australians are often very optimistic in terms of serious illness and injury. We watch television ad's of people falling sick or getting injured. A lot of us have the same mentality, "it won't happen to me".

It's easy to become cynical when faced with such confronting facts. Instead of becoming cynical, it might be wise to take out protective cover in case you do fall seriously ill.

Trauma insurance, or critical illness insurance pays out a lump sum of money upon diagnosis of a serious illness. There are about 30 to 40 illnesses which are covered, depending on which insurance company you choose to go with.

Talk to a Lifebroker insurance consultant today about taking out trauma insurance to cover you in the even that you end up suffering from a critical illness.