INSURANCE COMPANIES OFFER POLIO POLICIES

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27883, 3 February 1956, Page 10

INSURANCE COMPANIES OFFER POLIO POLICIES

Increasing numbers of Christchurch people are taking out insurance policies against poliomyelitis. The business has been stimulated by the rising incidence of the disease in the last few weeks.

According to the Christchurch offices of two New Zealand-wide companies, about 50 policies providing insurance against the disease have been taken out in Christchurch so far this year. The manager of one office said he felt that more policies would have been taken out had more people

known that insurance against the disease was possible. Both firms place their business with the famous underwriters, Lloyds of London.

The policies provide for maximum compensation of £lOOO or £lO a week for 100 weeks. One of the local offices is offering this cover for an annual payment of £1 for one person, or £2 for a family group, including husband and wife and all children under 18 years of age, and at 10s a person for a school or firm group of not more than 20 persons. The other company has a slightly different scale of charges.

If at any time while the weekly payment is being made to a sufferer it is determined that he will suffer a permanent disability of' at least 50 per cent., the balance of the £lOOO will be paid. The manager of one office said that nc claim could be made where the disease had been contracted within 12 days of the inception of a policy as the incubation period for the disease was about 14 days. Although husbands came to make inquiries about the policies, a representative of one office said he believed that it was the concern of wives that was fundamentally responsible for the increasing interest in this type of cover. It gave the woman a certain peace of rnind. he said. A spokesman at the other office said that as the disease now seemed to be striking adults as well as children there was a trend towards taking out policies for the whole familv. Insurance cover is also available under one policy against smallpox, typhoid, paratyphoid, cerebro-spinal fever, and diphtheria.