your options are:
Life Insurance
With vastly better medical care very few people die these days. Life insurance is only really important if you have debt or dependents. Life insurance pays out a lump sum of death or diagnosis of a terminal illness with less than 12 months to live.
Commercial Death
Your worst case scenario is probably that you survive a major accident or illness but cannot work for the rest of your life. You can cover this risk with Total Permanent Disability Cover which pays out a lump sum on “commercial death.”
Cancer and Trauma
You have a 25% probability of suffering from a major trauma during your working life. Cancer & Trauma cover pays out a lump sum at the time. This insurance only covers major traumas (and then only on specified trauma conditions) so mild strokes and cancers are unlikely to be covered under this type of policy.
Mortgage Protection
Mortgage Protection covers your mortgage payments when you can�t work. It has no ACC offset, so in the event of an accident you will receive ACC as well as have the mortgage paid. It can be a good policy for two income households where one salary goes towards paying the mortgage. However, it is not good long-term cover because it is not inflation adjusted.
Income Protection
Income protection provides you with a monthly benefit (based on a percentage of your income) if you are unable to work due to illness or injury. It can be indexed to increase with inflation which is a key benefit in the event of a long-term illness. 90% of long-term disabilities are the result of an illness rather than an accident. For example, only 30% of patients can go back to work after a cardiac condition.
Medical Insurance
You can choose from full cover (that includes GP visits, dental etc) or you can choose Hospital and Specialist only cover, which is significantly cheaper. The only other factor is whether or not you have an excess on the policy. When choosing a medical insurer you need to be clear on the trade-offs between policies. For example, most policies only include Pharmac drugs, which means they excludes funding for drugs like Hercepton. These are subtle but important policy differences.