What’s your Plan B?

A month ago, our life was turned upside down. Our youngest son, only 7 weeks old at the time, spent six days in the ICU at the Royal Children’s Hospital. He had bronchiolitis, which made it hard for him to breathe, and RSV, a really bad cold. Those six days completely changed our family life, leading to the hospital becoming a second home, upending our work life, sleeping habits, and creating extra expenses.

We were in the hospital every day, with my wife sometimes staying through the night. Throughout, we still had 2 other children to love and care for, one at school, and our three year old. Thankfully, we had the support of many friends and neighbours to help with school pickups, and even cooking meals, so we had much less to worry about. All our family lives interstate, but luckily my dad was over at the time, and was a great help.

The reason I’m sharing this is to emphasize the importance of your plan B. Thankfully our son’s time in hospital was short, compared to some families who can spend over 12 months with relatives in care. Having a plan B reduces your stress levels, and provides peace of mind for all concerned.

There are several questions you can ask yourself to create your plan B, including –

1.Who do you know that can help out with your kids, whether that’s friends doing school pickup runs, or family able to come and cook while you’re at the hospital. Those around you can provide enormous help in hard times.  

2.Do you have private health cover, and if so, do you know what’s included? If you don’t have private health insurance, you may want to consider ambulance cover, as the ambulance cost in Victoria is $1776.

3.Do you have an emergency fund ready in a bank account?

4.Do you have personal cover such as income protection, in case something happens to you?

5.Do you have trauma cover or child trauma, in case of a serious illness like cancer?

6.Do you know what services at the hospital, such as meals, parking or counselling you can take advantage of?

7.What leave entitlements are available to you from your employer? If you don’t have any, an emergency fund is especially important.

In our case, though we were at the Royal Children’s Hospital which is public, we still elected to have private health cover so the hospital received extra funds from our insurer. Our insurer also does not have an excess for children attending hospital. Our private health insurer covered the ambulance cost, saving us $1776. Parking at the Royal Children’s Hospital is $34 a day, although you may be entitled to discounted parking.

Our experience at the Children’s was incredible, from the facility itself to the nurses and doctors that work there. We are extremely lucky in Australia to have such a public health service, compared to some countries like the US. The hospital itself relies on funding from the federal government, private health insurers (from patients that have cover and elect to use at the hospital), and donations. The Good Friday Appeal and Run for Kids are well known annual events that I encourage you to support, and that we certainly will. This year, the Good Friday Appeal alone raised $18,043,251 in donations! If you wish to directly support the hospital, you can donate here.

Please, create your plan B, and have something in place to reduce your stress. If you would like help building your plan, or ensuring you have the right personal insurance for your situation, please get in touch.

P.S On the subject of private health insurance, if you don’t have any the government has introduced surcharges, including the medicare levy surcharge and a lifetime health cover loading.

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