Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whalbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
Speaker 1: As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
Speaker 1: the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
Speaker 1: and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 3: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 4: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
Speaker 4: for millennials who want financial freedom. There is no doubt
Speaker 4: about it that Australia is the lucky country. The standard
Speaker 4: of living, access to healthcare, quality of life for most
Speaker 4: people compared to international standards is kind of high, and
Speaker 4: perhaps as a reflection of this, Aussies are also some
Speaker 4: of the most underinsured people on the planet too, isn't
Speaker 4: that right?
Speaker 5: Pet I go on and on and on about this.
Speaker 5: This ain't my first rodeo, my love, but it seems
Speaker 5: like all this luck has given us a very very
Speaker 5: false sense of security, and there's a reason that she'll
Speaker 5: be right is a national saying. But you can never
Speaker 5: know what is around the corner with your health, which
Speaker 5: is exactly why Beck. Today we are talking about the
Speaker 5: cost of care and we have a very special guest
Speaker 5: who joins us today, my friend Rhiann and Tracy.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show, My love.
Speaker 6: I'm blushing that we're friends.
Speaker 5: We basically became best friends a week ago. Today we
Speaker 5: met at an event on the Gold Coast for Lareel,
Speaker 5: which was really fancy. I don't know about you, but
Speaker 5: I thought it was really cool to be working with
Speaker 5: Lorel And I've posted all over my socials as have you,
Speaker 5: so clearly think it's a lit bit fancy.
Speaker 2: We bonded over there, our mutual respect and love for
Speaker 2: kangaroo sidings, oh.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and ta kere and take care and beauty and
Speaker 5: fashion and literally everything else. But Rhiannon, can you tell
Speaker 5: my community a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2: Hello, she's on the Money community. My name is Rhiannon.
Speaker 2: I'm a Scorpio, which I think is vital information for
Speaker 2: this community.
Speaker 5: It absolutely is. You're also a community member and have
Speaker 5: been for a long time.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I have been living my life on wheels for
Speaker 2: the last fourteen years. So after a diving accident happened
Speaker 2: two months before my twenty first birthday, I was, I
Speaker 2: want to say gifted, but it wasn't really a gift,
Speaker 2: was it. I was a really really shooty gift and
Speaker 2: shitty gift. But you know what, I doned my hot
Speaker 2: pink set of wheels, and it's just how I roll
Speaker 2: through life now.
Speaker 5: It is, And I literally am obsessed with your content.
Speaker 5: I feel like after hearing you speak, it was just
Speaker 5: a no brainer to drag you onto the podcast because
Speaker 5: I feel like, not only is accessibility something that we
Speaker 5: need to be talking about, but you're really open and
Speaker 5: honest and frank about these conversations and breaking down some
Speaker 5: barriers that a lot of people often find really awkward
Speaker 5: when having these conversations because you're like, oh, you can't
Speaker 5: ask that, and you're like, heck, yes you can.
Speaker 2: It's fine. How about we talk about X, Y, and Z.
Speaker 5: And I just think this is how we should be
Speaker 5: having conversations because they are really respectful, but it also
Speaker 5: ultimately puts everybody in a better position. And I'm genuinely
Speaker 5: so excited to have you here and share, I guess
Speaker 5: your experience, but also talk about the research, talk about
Speaker 5: the cost of care, and talk about what it actually means, because,
Speaker 5: as Beck said before, we kind of have this false
Speaker 5: sense of security and we think that we live in
Speaker 5: the lucky country, and we think that the Australian healthcare
Speaker 5: system is the best thing in the entire world, which
Speaker 5: is true if you've never had anything significant happen. So
Speaker 5: Medicare and the Australian health system are great, and like
Speaker 5: I said before, we are called the lucky country for
Speaker 5: a reason, so I do think we need to acknowledge that.
Speaker 5: But as good as our safety nets are, the out
Speaker 5: of pocket cost and the impact to those of us
Speaker 5: who are affected by ill health or disability can be
Speaker 5: absolutely terrifying. And depending on the condition, the direct costs
Speaker 5: can range from hundreds of dollars too many thousands if
Speaker 5: not in your case, Rihanna, and millions of dollars, and
Speaker 5: often these are compounded by indirect costs like loss of
Speaker 5: income or impacting the sufferers or literally the people that
Speaker 5: surround you, and the cost of your family members needing
Speaker 5: to take care of you. So Rihanna, and I want
Speaker 5: to talk about the things that I, as an ex
Speaker 5: financial advisor, find really sexy, and that's personal insurances.
Speaker 2: So you had an accident.
Speaker 5: You dived into a pool and came out of that
Speaker 5: pool a quadriplegic. But I want to know what was
Speaker 5: your insurance at the time of that accident and how
Speaker 5: did it help you.
Speaker 2: I love telling this story because my mum and I
Speaker 2: we would go to Ballei every year and we would
Speaker 2: have the same argument, and that would be she would
Speaker 2: be telling me to get travel insurance. You didn't need
Speaker 2: it exactly. I wanted to buy the genuine fake Louis
Speaker 2: Vuitton bags. They're genuine, they're genuine fakes. Yeah, they've got
Speaker 2: the Gucci logo on the front backly, So it would
Speaker 2: be the same argument every year. That one hundred dollars, though,
Speaker 2: saved my life. And I did have travel insurance, and
Speaker 2: I had it every year, and I drill it into
Speaker 2: everybody's head who travels. I had all the insurances.
Speaker 5: And I love hearing that, and I feel like it's
Speaker 5: one of those things that as young people we just
Speaker 5: go that will never happen to me. I'm going to
Speaker 5: Bali and you know what I get it. Bali is
Speaker 5: like a budget location, so like, you're not there going
Speaker 5: this is a multi thousand dollar, you know, Europe trip
Speaker 5: where you know, an extra couple of hundred dollars is
Speaker 5: really not that much. You kind of look at Bali
Speaker 5: and I go, all right, we've got some sick, cheap
Speaker 5: jet stuff lights. What is the cheapest best accommodation we
Speaker 5: can get? And then it just feels like insurance is
Speaker 5: one of those other burdens that you're like, I can't
Speaker 5: be bothered, but it is so worth it, And the
Speaker 5: amount of times I have had to drill into ex
Speaker 5: clients and my friends and my family, I'm like, insurance,
Speaker 5: I want it to be the biggest waste of money
Speaker 5: you've ever made.
Speaker 2: I want you to buy it.
Speaker 5: And not claim on it, Like that's the ideal outcome,
Speaker 5: because even though Roan and you're in a better financial position,
Speaker 5: it's kind of shitty that you had to claim on
Speaker 5: it on the first place. And we really need to
Speaker 5: understand how government health systems and insurances interact, and I
Speaker 5: guess have a realistic appreciation of the true cost of
Speaker 5: poor health so we can judge the appropriateness of types
Speaker 5: and levels of support to best suit our circumstances, and
Speaker 5: even with private health insurance and medicare, you're often left
Speaker 5: with a massive gap to pay. Sirianna and I have
Speaker 5: a few facts and stats, and I know you can
Speaker 5: back this up because I've literally heard you talking about this,
Speaker 5: But Hugo, did you know an Australian study investigating the
Speaker 5: effects of health care costs on individuals found that fourteen
Speaker 5: percent of adults didn't receive the recommended care due to cost.
Speaker 5: For those living with chronic health conditions, that proportion was
Speaker 5: higher at twenty four percent.
Speaker 2: Is this a surprise? It actually still blows my mind
Speaker 2: because you know, I was twenty one when I was
Speaker 2: discharged from hospital, and not only was I unable to
Speaker 2: return to work, but my mum actually had to close
Speaker 2: her business to become my full time career because we
Speaker 2: couldn't afford caress.
Speaker 6: There was no ndis.
Speaker 2: I think we got seven hours of respite a week
Speaker 2: from the government, so you know week.
Speaker 5: It's not even a full work day for someone.
Speaker 2: I mean the amount of komochas I saw my mum
Speaker 2: throw over the back fence just because she needed some
Speaker 2: kind of mental and physical release from being my full
Speaker 2: time care heck, no, get this out of my life.
Speaker 2: But it's just absurd that these are the costs associated
Speaker 2: with living with any kind of disability or you know,
Speaker 2: physical trauma. And I mean it makes sense.
Speaker 5: Beck, you grew up in more of a low income family,
Speaker 5: and I feel like this even stretches to I guess
Speaker 5: that side of our community where it's like, okay, cool,
Speaker 5: the cost of health care meant that you didn't receive
Speaker 5: the recommended care due to cost. Did you ever come
Speaker 5: across that or experience it personally or see it being
Speaker 5: experienced in your community, To be honest, not a lot
Speaker 5: when I was growing up, because I guess like I
Speaker 5: just took for granted that going to the doctors and
Speaker 5: getting half priced prescription medication with a healthcare car and
Speaker 5: things like that just made sense growing up. Actually, now
Speaker 5: that I'm older and I want to, for example, take
Speaker 5: care of my teeth, I desperately need to get wisdom
Speaker 5: teeth out, desperately need to get all these same yeah, like.
Speaker 2: Feeling such an expensive bro seriously.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, I can't believe that's not covered by Medicare,
Speaker 4: And so I guess it's not. Growing up, I didn't
Speaker 4: really feel it, but I can imagine that my mum
Speaker 4: would have knowing what went on behind the scenes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I guess that experience makes a lot of
Speaker 5: sense because when you're little, regardless of your circumstances, your
Speaker 5: parents often or your caregivers often shelter you from that.
Speaker 5: Like your parents weren't going to tell you if they're
Speaker 5: struggling to take you to the doctor or pay for
Speaker 5: a prescription. But as you get older, the pinch gets
Speaker 5: a little bit more real, and I feel like for
Speaker 5: our community at the moment, it's getting even more real
Speaker 5: because I'm having these conversations even just about bulk billing
Speaker 5: clinics becoming like Hen's teeth, like people like where bulk bilms,
Speaker 5: like so many doctor's clinics are now going, oh, we
Speaker 5: don't do that anymore. And to me, that's wild, and
Speaker 5: I understand why, Like they're a business. At the end
Speaker 5: of the day, going and seeing a private GP is
Speaker 5: not a government run facility. It's actually a private business
Speaker 5: and they are running it as such, and so it's
Speaker 5: kind of up to their discretion as to whether they
Speaker 5: extend you that grace or not. However, to me, it's
Speaker 5: wild that there aren't kind of like mandates of how
Speaker 5: many bulk billing clinics are in particular areas and stuff
Speaker 5: like that. So I feel like more now than ever,
Speaker 5: we're kind of feeling the healthcare pinch. But moving on,
Speaker 5: I have another statistic for you that won't come as
Speaker 5: a surprise to either people sitting at the table because
Speaker 5: I've shown you it before, but it might to people
Speaker 5: who were listening. Further research, so from the same study
Speaker 5: suggested that over forty percent of individuals with depression, anxiety,
Speaker 5: or other mental health conditions just completely skip treatment and
Speaker 5: other care because of the cost.
Speaker 2: It makes sense, that's really say forty percent, are you joking?
Speaker 5: Only sixty percent of people experiencing these things are getting
Speaker 5: the help that they need.
Speaker 2: And the sad thing about it, and the sad I
Speaker 2: should say, the sad reality about it is the well,
Speaker 2: I don't want to say the majority, but a lot
Speaker 2: of these people who need access to these you know,
Speaker 2: mental health care and things like that are my community
Speaker 2: and people living with disabilities that require the physical care
Speaker 2: just as much as they require the mental health care.
Speaker 5: You were talking about it in your presentation that people
Speaker 5: who already have a pre existing disability, are what three
Speaker 5: times more likely to suffer from a mental health condition,
Speaker 5: And like that makes sense because your lifestyle is already
Speaker 5: compromised and that is leading to you not feeling your
Speaker 5: like your best self, and it just to me, I
Speaker 5: just want to jump up and down about it, because
Speaker 5: it's just so wildly unfair to me. That obviously takes
Speaker 5: into consideration absolutely no indirect cost like days off work
Speaker 5: from not being able to go to work, or the
Speaker 5: reduced working capacity of becoming a carer. And you mentioned
Speaker 5: that just before, Like your mum literally sold her business
Speaker 5: to look after you. And I mean, I'm sure if
Speaker 5: we spoke to your momum, she'd be like, oh, I
Speaker 5: wouldn't have done anything else. Like Rihannon is the one
Speaker 5: true love of my entire life. And I totally get.
Speaker 6: That right because that's one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: That's love and that's family, and that makes sense. But like,
Speaker 5: that doesn't mean that she wasn't impacted. That doesn't mean that.
Speaker 2: The emotional guilt that I lived with because it was
Speaker 2: something that had happened directly to me, but indirectly to her.
Speaker 2: So she was giving up her entire life to make
Speaker 2: sure that I had some kind of quality of my own.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And to be honest, that is so special, Like
Speaker 5: I just your mom must be the biggest legend in
Speaker 5: the entire world.
Speaker 6: We love Shaza, we.
Speaker 5: Love Shahaha, shas water legend. So we're going to look
Speaker 5: at some of the real costs of care now for
Speaker 5: certain different types of injuries and diseases and re we
Speaker 5: mentioned before, I would adore your insight on this. So
Speaker 5: one of my favorite pieces of research that was ever
Speaker 5: done is by Zurich. It's the Zurich White Paper on
Speaker 5: the Cost of Care. And you guys have probably heard
Speaker 5: me talk about this before. If you're one of my
Speaker 5: financial advice clients or my ex financial advice clients, you've
Speaker 5: probably had it sent to you about a million times
Speaker 5: when I ran on and on about getting appropriately insured.
Speaker 5: But let's talk about spinal cord injury to begin with.
Speaker 5: It's not going to be a surprise to you, but
Speaker 5: I think it is going to be a massive surprise
Speaker 5: to our community that the lifetime direct cost of quadriplegia
Speaker 5: can exceed eleven million dollars for an individual.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it definitely still to this day makes me
Speaker 2: want to fall out of my chair when I hear
Speaker 2: those numbers, because then I look at that in comparison
Speaker 2: to the disability support pension that I was on many
Speaker 2: years ago before I realized, well, I realized then that
Speaker 2: I had no choice but to build some kind of
Speaker 2: a career of my own because I just could not
Speaker 2: afford any kind of life. I couldn't even afford the
Speaker 2: means that I needed to be able to do personal care,
Speaker 2: go to the toilet, do the things, you know, So
Speaker 2: it absolutely blows my mind. Can we share that on
Speaker 2: the podcast?
Speaker 5: Actually, when I had this conversation after meeting and you
Speaker 5: were like, oh my gosh, it cost me x to
Speaker 5: do this, and why can you share that with the community,
Speaker 5: because it through my mind.
Speaker 2: There's so many hidden costs when it comes to spinal
Speaker 2: cord injury. And I always speak on the perspective of
Speaker 2: this injury because it's obviously the one that I live with,
Speaker 2: But people don't understand that it's not just what you
Speaker 2: see is what you get injury. So, yes, somebody is paralyzed,
Speaker 2: that can be obvious, sometimes not, but we're internally paralyzed
Speaker 2: as well, which means that the injury itself has affected
Speaker 2: all of our internal organs and one of the main
Speaker 2: I guess things that is affected is our bound bladder functions.
Speaker 2: So will require not just medication but also continent aids
Speaker 2: to be able to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 6: And they cost money.
Speaker 2: So for example, just to paint the picture, there's no
Speaker 2: such thing as TMI when it comes to these injuries.
Speaker 2: It costs me a dollar sixty five every time I
Speaker 2: need to go and do a wee. But then you
Speaker 2: throw on top of that the cost of the medication
Speaker 2: I need to take to be able to do number twos.
Speaker 2: I worked it out a few months ago and it
Speaker 2: was actually more than what I earn on my full
Speaker 2: time wager year, So it was eighty six thousand dollars roughly,
Speaker 2: and that is based on a good day of not
Speaker 2: drinkings of water a day. Not here as a health
Speaker 2: quick yes, and a health queen. You know, I'm not
Speaker 2: having that extra coffee a day either. But there are
Speaker 2: so many hidden costs associated which adds up to that
Speaker 2: those millions of dollars. And it still blows my mind
Speaker 2: to this day that the disability support pension is what
Speaker 2: it is. There's so many conversations around how NDIS really
Speaker 2: does help the disability community. Well, put it this way,
Speaker 2: before the NDIS existed, that eighty six thousand dollars was
Speaker 2: coming out of mine or my family's pocket, all my
Speaker 2: communities because we did a lot of fundraisers.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, it is wild to me that that
Speaker 5: would come out of your I'm so glad that the
Speaker 5: NDIES exists now and you're able to get that support
Speaker 5: because you bloody deserve it.
Speaker 2: But the idea that that.
Speaker 5: Is coming out of your family's income, like, I don't
Speaker 5: know where my family would get that from.
Speaker 2: And that's not even including you know, a wheelchair. This
Speaker 2: chair that I'm sitting in now is about ten thousand
Speaker 2: dollars and that's not including the cushion.
Speaker 5: And this is my it's not even including the cushion.
Speaker 5: They're like, that's just the base model. My god, you know,
Speaker 5: I mean it is nice.
Speaker 6: Look the GT the GT model.
Speaker 2: But you know, so there are so many things and
Speaker 2: there's so much conversation around the NDIES, But for me,
Speaker 2: it really has saved my life and my mental stability.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I'm really grateful for it. And it's wild
Speaker 5: because it's not just you. So according to the Zurich
Speaker 5: White Paper. They're around twenty thousand, eight hundred Australians who
Speaker 5: currently live with spinal cord injuries, which you won't be
Speaker 5: surprised about, but approximately half of those were working prior
Speaker 5: to having a spinal cord injury, and they're never going
Speaker 5: to be able to return to a working role, so
Speaker 5: they're not actually able to generate an income. That's correct,
Speaker 5: and it's wild, right, And I'm so proud of you
Speaker 5: for I guess beating those odds, which is an absolute
Speaker 5: anomaly for this type of injury. But that, honestly, from
Speaker 5: my perspective, shouldn't be something that we're proud of for you.
Speaker 5: It's something that should be given, like you should be
Speaker 5: able to work, You should be able to be catered
Speaker 5: for and have a role that makes sense with your injury.
Speaker 5: But nine times out of ten, when you talk to
Speaker 5: someone with an injury like this, most of the reason
Speaker 5: they can't return is because they don't have the proper
Speaker 5: equipment to be able to return to full time work,
Speaker 5: or they don't have the proper support or the types
Speaker 5: of resources.
Speaker 2: That they need.
Speaker 5: And it drives me insane because it's like, wow, so
Speaker 5: you're saying if I had set you up properly and
Speaker 5: given you all of the rehab that you can't afford
Speaker 5: right now, and the proper chair and everything else, you
Speaker 5: could do a job that makes sense for you. Yes,
Speaker 5: the answer resolutely yes, it's.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent, because even to this day, we are
Speaker 2: still having to prove.
Speaker 6: What our needs are.
Speaker 2: You know, I've still got to prove that I need
Speaker 2: the NDIS funding packages that I require, which minds on
Speaker 2: the lower spectrum, because I am independent. I don't need,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty four hours a day worth of support.
Speaker 6: Even to get a parking permit.
Speaker 2: I've got to prove the extent of my injury or
Speaker 2: my disability. So even though these things exist to support
Speaker 2: our community, it doesn't mean they come easy. And that's
Speaker 2: amada bullshit.
Speaker 5: That's something it really confuses me as well, because obviously
Speaker 5: there are different I guess there are different levels of disability,
Speaker 5: and some of them can be overcome over time, right
Speaker 5: Like someone might have an injury that lasts two years
Speaker 5: and then they come out the other side of it,
Speaker 5: they don't need their income protection anymore because they can
Speaker 5: turn to full time work out their full capacity and
Speaker 5: there's no issue moving forward. Obviously if they don't require
Speaker 5: the NDA, well they shouldn't be being paid by the
Speaker 5: NDAs correct. That makes sense. But with an injury like yours,
Speaker 5: it's permanent. Like what part of permanent does the ndis
Speaker 5: not understand, Like, surely there should be some kind of
Speaker 5: criteria that you go through and you're like, hey, cool,
Speaker 5: look at this, we came this far. Can you just
Speaker 5: tick a box to say I don't need to be
Speaker 5: reviewed again? Like, I totally understand. There are some places
Speaker 5: that review makes sense. Yeah, but why in your situation
Speaker 5: are you in the bucket where you need to be reviewed?
Speaker 2: And what does that process look like for you?
Speaker 6: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because I'm on the other side of it,
Speaker 2: whereas I have the injury, but I also have a
Speaker 2: not for profit organization that services my community. So I
Speaker 2: have an exercise physiology based facility that helps people with
Speaker 2: disabilities physically access exercise and private healthcare. And the amount
Speaker 2: of report writing and documentation that we have to put
Speaker 2: together for our athletes.
Speaker 6: We call them athletes. It's not patients or clients. They
Speaker 6: are athletes.
Speaker 2: Big mindset thing does to prove again that exercise is
Speaker 2: something that improves quality of life. The process is just
Speaker 2: entirely unbearable. It is mentally taxing, it's physically taxing for
Speaker 2: somebody like myself. I mean, when my body was broken,
Speaker 2: my voice became a thing. So I just get in
Speaker 2: there and I just say, this is what I want,
Speaker 2: this is what I need. But you know, I'm now
Speaker 2: looking at starting a family with my partners, so my
Speaker 2: needs are going to change. I'm not going to be
Speaker 2: able to do the things that I do now when
Speaker 2: I'm pregnant or you know, post pregnancy, So I'm going
Speaker 2: to require more things, modifications to my car and things
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 5: What are some other hidden costs or things that you know,
Speaker 5: people like Beck and I might not have even considered.
Speaker 6: So again I'll talk from my own personal perspective.
Speaker 2: I'll just talk to you about what I require as
Speaker 2: somebody living with an injury. Now I've got what's considered
Speaker 2: an incomplete injury. So if you look at me and
Speaker 2: then you look at five other quadriplegics, we're all going
Speaker 2: to look entirely different and our needs are going to
Speaker 2: be into highly different. So I live independently in a
Speaker 2: very unaccessible household which I'm about to move and it's
Speaker 2: out of ten.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yah, so excited for that. But that in itself has
Speaker 2: been a tiring process due to accessibility and funds. But
Speaker 2: I have car modifications, so I drive a normal car.
Speaker 2: I don't have what a lot of people have. I
Speaker 2: don't have steering little utensils or whatever you want to
Speaker 2: call them on the steering wheel. I actually have a
Speaker 2: left foot accelerator and that cost money to modify, to
Speaker 2: modify it over correct the test that I required to
Speaker 2: get my license back to be able to drive said car.
Speaker 6: That costs money.
Speaker 2: And this was pre dis I used to have a
Speaker 2: hoist in the back of my car that would lift
Speaker 2: my chair in and out of my car. That costs money.
Speaker 2: I got rid of it because it kept breaking down.
Speaker 2: I can't not be bothering in But again, like when
Speaker 2: I'm pregnant, I'm not going to be able to be
Speaker 2: lifting my car because I'd be more focused on lifting
Speaker 2: my child.
Speaker 5: And even just like the idea of getting a child
Speaker 5: in and out of a car like that for me
Speaker 5: really hard. And I don't even have kids, and I'm
Speaker 5: just puddling nieces and nephews out of I can't understand
Speaker 5: car seats. I get stuck with them, like you have
Speaker 5: to be up and over the top of them. Like
Speaker 5: that's another level of complicated that I hadn't even considered.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, but looking at that, looking at starting a family,
Speaker 2: so I can't just roll into a baby bunting and
Speaker 2: buy any COT. I'm going to need a modified COT,
Speaker 2: modified car seats, all the things. I can now say
Speaker 2: it proudly that I am one of the lucky ones
Speaker 2: who I don't require access to a lot of the
Speaker 2: modified things. But I'm just one out of four point
Speaker 2: four million in our country, you know, And there's just
Speaker 2: not enough funds out there for us, and that's the problem.
Speaker 5: It blows my mind. Earlier you mentioned that you'd actually
Speaker 5: gone over to the US for some rehab because that
Speaker 5: type of rehab wasn't available in Australia, and I feel
Speaker 5: like that's a relatively let's call it, like an experiment
Speaker 5: into therapy in comparison, what's the cost of that, Like,
Speaker 5: how much does that cost to go to the US?
Speaker 5: Because I already know from a base level that the
Speaker 5: American healthcare system is not very good and is very expensive.
Speaker 5: But then also doing that internationally to me is wild.
Speaker 5: So can you tell me a bit more about that
Speaker 5: experience and what and why and when and how.
Speaker 2: It's funny because I asked Shazza last night. I was like, Mum,
Speaker 2: I need some digits because I was heavily medicated when
Speaker 2: all this went on. I I just remember attending the
Speaker 2: fundraisers and that's the thing, Like we had to fundraise
Speaker 2: for everything, so absolutely everything down to the Komo chair
Speaker 2: that Mum would throw around the backyard. But I think
Speaker 2: their first trip, so we went to an exercise physiology
Speaker 2: based recovery center, but we also needed to have accessible accommodations,
Speaker 2: so we were raising in excess of like sixty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars for a one month trip. I think the first
Speaker 2: time we actually went over to San Diego, we were
Speaker 2: only meant to be there for two weeks, but my
Speaker 2: physical recovery was so great that Mum actually rang my
Speaker 2: step down and said, put my car on the market.
Speaker 6: We need to stay longer.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that is so yeah cool, But I
Speaker 2: mean the guilts I'm therapy that I've had to pay.
Speaker 6: For since sure.
Speaker 2: But you know, then when we got back to Australia,
Speaker 2: there was the whole reason we went over there is
Speaker 2: because we just didn't have access to it fourteen years ago.
Speaker 6: Now we have the next step.
Speaker 5: I was about to say, is this not really like
Speaker 5: motivated you to open your facility.
Speaker 2: Like which again not for profit, had fundraise from the
Speaker 2: ground up to be able, and it's.
Speaker 5: Told the next step right, so you can follow it
Speaker 5: on Instagram obviously, But I remember meeting you and then
Speaker 5: going and looking at that and being like, I literally
Speaker 5: have never seen anything like this in Australia as wild.
Speaker 5: I sent it to my mum to be like, look
Speaker 5: at this, how cool is this?
Speaker 2: Like they still don't know how I did it, but
Speaker 2: it honestly it was just based off purpose and passion
Speaker 2: and a need. Like I said when we first met,
Speaker 2: everything I've done, I've done because I needed somebody to
Speaker 2: do these things or to tell me these things fourteen
Speaker 2: years ago. So when we came back from America, we
Speaker 2: actually went over there on three separate occasions. Each time
Speaker 2: we came back, we had to keep fundraising to go back,
Speaker 2: and we were asking our community to fundraise for one person.
Speaker 2: And every time we'd go over to America, we'd meet
Speaker 2: more Aussies that were having to do the same thing,
Speaker 2: which again a bit of bullshit and the last time
Speaker 2: we went over there. So the third and final time
Speaker 2: we went over there, I ended up in the hospital
Speaker 2: over there incorrectly diagnosed with MS and put it on
Speaker 2: a prodessolone drips. So, oh my god. I came back
Speaker 2: to Australia and my doctor was like, you don't have MS.
Speaker 2: You've got a spartal cord injury and your body's exhausted.
Speaker 2: But again we had travel insurance, but we had to
Speaker 2: prove that what was happening to my body it had
Speaker 2: happened and it wasn't, you know, because of my injury,
Speaker 2: which it kind of was. But it was just a
Speaker 2: bizarre experience being I've been in the healthcare system in
Speaker 2: Bali that's a whole story within itself, and then the
Speaker 2: hospital system in America. I can though exclaim that the
Speaker 2: best thing about being in the hospitals in America is
Speaker 2: the paramedics.
Speaker 6: They are so good looking.
Speaker 2: I was about to say, you're going to tell me
Speaker 2: they're real hot. Yeah, that's so good looking, all right.
Speaker 2: Australian paramedics are just not as there's definitely some hobbies
Speaker 2: out there, but I mean and like their paramedics are
Speaker 2: also like firemen as well. Okay, so I see where
Speaker 2: you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you want to set the
Speaker 2: hospital on fire.
Speaker 5: So they all right, but not really but maybe yeah
Speaker 5: maybe it anyway cost we'll put it out if they're
Speaker 5: not that hot when they come, right, I feel like I.
Speaker 2: Feel like people are going to come for me now. No,
Speaker 2: they're absolutely not. This is so money, Like, I feel
Speaker 2: like there's no such thing as an off brand. Like
Speaker 2: I feel like you're there's a positive in every negative
Speaker 2: and the positive words of paramedics in the Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: glad we did so much fundraising and got the money's worth,
Speaker 2: all right, So I reckon, let's look at some of
Speaker 2: the other costs of common diseases in Australia.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree, So I think when it comes to
Speaker 5: not being the most common, but one of the more
Speaker 5: commonly talked about diseases in Australia is breast cancer. So
Speaker 5: breast cancer is the most common cancer among Australian women
Speaker 5: and there is a one in eight chance to develop
Speaker 5: it by the time you are eighty five years old,
Speaker 5: and seventy percent of breast cancer is detected in women
Speaker 5: between the ages of forty and sixty nine years and
Speaker 5: the average lifetime cost of breast cancer, which I'm going
Speaker 5: to argue because I like arguing basically everything, like it's
Speaker 5: just who I am as a human being. But the
Speaker 5: average lifetime cost, according to the Zero Cost of Care Report,
Speaker 5: which means it is actually legitimate, is thirty six and
Speaker 5: forty dollars, which is a whole bunch of money just
Speaker 5: to get breast cancer. Obviously, if you are insured, a
Speaker 5: lot of this is going to be covered. But having
Speaker 5: gone through life and known a number of women who
Speaker 5: have gone through this, again, it's really from my perspective,
Speaker 5: not about the direct cost, Like that's how much is
Speaker 5: going to cost for your medical treatment to come out
Speaker 5: the other side and hopefully be told you don't have
Speaker 5: any breast cancer in your body at all and you
Speaker 5: are all good to go home. That doesn't take into
Speaker 5: consideration the therapy. That doesn't take into consideration the cost
Speaker 5: of income that you would experience while you know, going
Speaker 5: through treatment, the cost to your partner and your cares
Speaker 5: and the people that surround you. What about the cost
Speaker 5: to your children, Like I remember growing up, one of
Speaker 5: my mum's best friends passed away from breast cancer, and
Speaker 5: she was like one of the best human beings in
Speaker 5: the entire world, Like it always happens to the good ones, right,
Speaker 5: and she had two young kids, and you know it
Speaker 5: was the biggest let's just call it a shit show
Speaker 5: in the entire world because she was married and then
Speaker 5: the will marriage complications obviously, because not all manner as
Speaker 5: good as they should be when it comes to things
Speaker 5: like this. But then it just it really stretched out
Speaker 5: and you just go the cost to her in general.
Speaker 5: Wasn't just the six thousand dollars. She ended up losing
Speaker 5: her life from this, which is obviously massive. Two kids
Speaker 5: lost a parent, But then I guess stretching that out again,
Speaker 5: like what if she had survived. Two kids have this
Speaker 5: experience of growing up with a sick mum who wasn't
Speaker 5: as present and you know, does absolutely everything that they
Speaker 5: possibly can. But it's just these costs can't, from my perspective,
Speaker 5: be quantified, Like and I feel like talking about this
Speaker 5: cost of care document so helpful. It is literally the
Speaker 5: first document that we have in Australia that tells us
Speaker 5: the lifetime costs of diseases and illnesses. But I just
Speaker 5: really don't think it quantifies it. And when you start
Speaker 5: putting things down on a white paper, You're like, yeah, like,
Speaker 5: that's what we could measure at the end of the day,
Speaker 5: that's what we could measure. Melanoma is something that as
Speaker 5: a community we talk about a lot, and Australia has
Speaker 5: the second highest prevalence.
Speaker 2: Of melanoma in the entire world.
Speaker 5: The average lifetime cost for cancer sufferers aged over fifteen
Speaker 5: years can range from twenty thousand, three hundred and sixty
Speaker 5: dollars for having melanoma. But as we all know, it costs.
Speaker 2: So much money to have body mapping done and a
Speaker 2: moult shake, right, and that's just not even having it,
Speaker 2: that's just checking if you might at risk. And like,
Speaker 2: I've just made an appointment to go and have mole
Speaker 2: mapping done and to have things checked, and it's going
Speaker 2: to cost me about five hundred dollars. Yes, I got
Speaker 2: one down a couple of years ago and I think
Speaker 2: it was like five hundred and sow dovent these things
Speaker 2: if we can't easily access them because of funds.
Speaker 5: Exactly, it blows my mind, right. And then mental health
Speaker 5: is something that is so important to us but also
Speaker 5: is massive in our community. Almost half of the total population,
Speaker 5: so forty five point five percent of people experience a
Speaker 5: mental health condition at some point in their lifetime. Mental
Speaker 5: health conditions can include effective disorders, so things like depression,
Speaker 5: bipolar schizophrenia, anxiety disorders like panic attacks and stress disorders,
Speaker 5: and substance abuse disorders so alcohol and drug dependencies. The
Speaker 5: cost for depression, on average is seventeen on one hundred
Speaker 5: and ninety dollars per individual. Well, just doesn't seem high enough.
Speaker 6: And some people have one or two of these things.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, Like it's not something that
Speaker 5: just exists in isolation. Most of the time, individuals will
Speaker 5: spend an average estimated cost of thirteen thousand and fifty
Speaker 5: dollars per year out of pocket for mental health conditions,
Speaker 5: with medications accounting for one third of that cost.
Speaker 2: I feel like I spend more than that. I absolutely
Speaker 2: just on my mental health.
Speaker 5: Like I definitely spend more than that, Like I've calculated it.
Speaker 5: I take an anti anxiety and a depression medication, and
Speaker 5: they equate to maybe, like I think fifty two or so,
Speaker 5: depending on the keevest. I go to dollars a month,
Speaker 5: and that's fine. I feel like I can deal with
Speaker 5: that cost. But that's a lot of money. But then
Speaker 5: on top of that, I take a whole heap of
Speaker 5: natural supplements to try and like, you know, boost my
Speaker 5: mood in general, because I just don't like the idea
Speaker 5: of being medicated. I then also am diagnosed with ADHD
Speaker 5: I have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's probably why we get on.
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 2: It's like we met in oe each other.
Speaker 5: It's like, oh my god, you go a million miles
Speaker 5: an hour?
Speaker 2: Two do you want to get coffee?
Speaker 5: Cool? Cool?
Speaker 2: Cool? Like next minute we're setting like double chin selfies
Speaker 2: to each other. I'm like, look at my ten on
Speaker 2: my neck. It's done. Nice. You just get me. Sorry.
Speaker 5: But I feel like that the medication is actually not
Speaker 5: that expensive. I think the medication, yeah.
Speaker 2: I was about diet, The medication real cheap.
Speaker 5: It's about I think it's like seventeen dollars a month
Speaker 5: or something real good money win. But also for me
Speaker 5: to get that medication, I have to go to a GP.
Speaker 5: I have to have a mental health care plan. I
Speaker 5: then get referred through to a hiatrest because a psychologist
Speaker 5: is not good enough. They can't prescribe medications. You need
Speaker 5: to see a psychiatrist. I'm very fortunate that I got
Speaker 5: diagnosed at about the age. I think I was like
Speaker 5: seventeen or eighteen when I got diagnosed, so it was
Speaker 5: before the rise of people really understanding it as much. Sure,
Speaker 5: there wasn't as much prevalence of it, so getting into
Speaker 5: a psychiatrist wasn't as much of an issue as it
Speaker 5: is today for most people. But my psychiatrists appointments are
Speaker 5: probably four hundred and fifty dollars per appointment, and a
Speaker 5: lot of that is out of pocket. So I think
Speaker 5: I'm like maybe two hundred and eighty dollars out of
Speaker 5: pocket for every appointment that I go to.
Speaker 2: Wow, prior to that, because.
Speaker 5: I was young and you know, it took a really
Speaker 5: long time to diagnose me. They could not work out
Speaker 5: what was wrong with me because I was a female,
Speaker 5: so obviously females historically, yeah, they don't get it. So
Speaker 5: I was seeing a pediatric neurologist before that, which was
Speaker 5: I think it was like five hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 5: a session, and my parents were paying for that. All
Speaker 5: of that is wild, and that's just to be diagnosed.
Speaker 5: And guess what, I don't even like taking the medication,
Speaker 5: so I take a whole heap of supplements to make
Speaker 5: sure that I can be the best version of me.
Speaker 5: And those supplements are so wildly expensive, like and obviously
Speaker 5: they're experimental and they're not going to work for everybody.
Speaker 5: And I'll talk about it on my Instagram at some
Speaker 5: point because you know, I'm taking a whole heap of
Speaker 5: stuff that I genuinely believe works, but I'm probably spending
Speaker 5: And I'm very privileged to be able to do this.
Speaker 2: Three hundred and fifty or four hundred dollars a month
Speaker 2: on something Wow, yeah.
Speaker 5: Easily easily, And that's after researching you know, what actually works,
Speaker 5: what helps. Like, so I'm on, like a supplement called tyrazine.
Speaker 5: I'm on, you know, I take lions Maine, which.
Speaker 2: Is I just prescribed to my partner this morning. Describe
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 5: To natural supplements, the mushroom. It's got none of the illicit.
Speaker 2: Stuff magic one though, I do say it is magic
Speaker 2: for us.
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: I think it's really important to talk about these things
Speaker 5: because the cost of money, right, and it's so expensive,
Speaker 5: and that's just my very privileged experience of the healthcare
Speaker 5: system and being able to afford it.
Speaker 2: Like if you.
Speaker 5: Are in a lower income household and you are diagnosed
Speaker 5: with ADHD, you might go, okay, cool, Well, the medications
Speaker 5: not expensive, but goddamn the process to get there is
Speaker 5: insane and prohibitive and expensive and time consuming, and it's
Speaker 5: just to me, it's absolutely life.
Speaker 6: That's why a lot of people put it in the
Speaker 6: two heart basket.
Speaker 2: That's why a lot of people walking roll and running
Speaker 2: around undiagnosed and just not having that easy access to
Speaker 2: the things they require for their quality of life.
Speaker 5: Exactly, which leads into my next stat that says fewer
Speaker 5: than two in five, so thirty five percent of people
Speaker 5: with anxiety or depression sake treatment. And I would say
Speaker 5: that that really leans into accessibility. And while it's quote accessible,
Speaker 5: it's accessible if you have the money to excess it, right,
Speaker 5: excess excess whatever. And then individuals with mental health conditions
Speaker 5: lost an average of thirty eight working days per year.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of days.
Speaker 5: Given most employment contracts in Australia, if you have a
Speaker 5: thirty eight hour working week and you're full time employed,
Speaker 5: you get ten. So you're usually in a situation where
Speaker 5: you're probably taking twenty eight days of unpaid leave because
Speaker 5: your employer is not going to just fund your health
Speaker 5: condition and God for Beard, that's not their responsibility. But
Speaker 5: that's twenty eight days. Extrapolate that out. That's more than
Speaker 5: a month of unpaid leave you have to take because
Speaker 5: of mental health. And I feel like we need to
Speaker 5: I always like to contextualize things, because you're saying thirty
Speaker 5: eight working days are moving on just doesn't hits an
Speaker 5: hour on the head, right, Like thirty eight working days,
Speaker 5: you don't even do that amount of days in a month.
Speaker 5: Like that's more than a month. It's closer to two
Speaker 5: months worth of work that you're missing out on each
Speaker 5: and every single year because of mental health and not
Speaker 5: being able to access the right resources. And like we know,
Speaker 5: as people sitting at this table, who all have talked
Speaker 5: about their mental health openly and honestly, we know that
Speaker 5: that costs money. And we also know that with access
Speaker 5: to the right resources we can be okay. But not
Speaker 5: everyone has that privilege, no.
Speaker 2: All that knowledge as well, because I mean a lot
Speaker 2: of these things, including disability, still remain quite in So
Speaker 2: you know, I know you've heard me say before, Victoria,
Speaker 2: but you just don't know what you don't know. And
Speaker 2: that's why these kind of communities, like she's on the
Speaker 2: money exist to provide the education that we need to have.
Speaker 2: If we can't have financial access, at least we have
Speaker 2: access to the knowledge one hundred percent, and the line's
Speaker 2: mate and the line's made one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: Do you know what I'm going to do if someone
Speaker 5: could sponsor me. We're going to talk offline about this, honestly,
Speaker 5: because I have theories about the different types of lines
Speaker 5: Maine that you can buy and whether some are good
Speaker 5: and some are bad.
Speaker 2: Like I have a lot of it. Generally the ones
Speaker 2: that are the most expensive, they're the good ones.
Speaker 5: It's unfortunately, unfortunately, my last bottle of lines Main cost
Speaker 5: like one hundred and sixty dollars.
Speaker 6: Straight from Byron Bay.
Speaker 5: It was we were on the same all right, let's
Speaker 5: go to a really quick break Forrehanna and I are
Speaker 5: going to talk about lines Main, and when we come back,
Speaker 5: we are going to talk about the impact of insurance
Speaker 5: on your attitude, your quality of life, and how to
Speaker 5: move on from experiencing an injury or an illness. Don't
Speaker 5: go anywhere, guys.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 4: We are talking about the cost of care on She's
Speaker 4: on the money today, and we have a motivational speaker,
Speaker 4: wellness advocate and model Rihanna and Tracy with us, who
Speaker 4: has navigated life after a spinal injury made her a quadriplegic.
Speaker 4: All right, Rihanna, and this is the sexy part of
Speaker 4: the episode. It's where we get to talk about insurance.
Speaker 4: I want to know, from your perspective, how has your
Speaker 4: experience impacted your attitudes towards insurance.
Speaker 2: Oh do you know what?
Speaker 5: I You're like, I can't even be bothered.
Speaker 2: Don't even think about it, yolo.
Speaker 6: I don't get off on insurance like you do.
Speaker 2: But the insurance is the reason why I'm here telling
Speaker 2: my story, isn't it? Because without insurance I would not
Speaker 2: be alive. I didn't have a mum who told me
Speaker 2: that you had to descale a kettle, but I definitely
Speaker 2: had my mother telling me to scale a kettle.
Speaker 6: Oh my god, matchup?
Speaker 2: Oh what's that even mean? You put the lemon and
Speaker 2: the bike up in the vinegar in your kettle to
Speaker 2: de scale your kettle? Oh no, I haven't done that.
Speaker 6: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, calcium build up, our producer, Just so what
Speaker 5: calcium build up is? If I'm meant to know that
Speaker 5: that's a thing I'm going to buy another kettle.
Speaker 2: Don't worry. Anyway, back to insurance, because it's sexy. It
Speaker 2: is sexy. I had a mum who instilled insurances. I
Speaker 2: had insurance for I mean, we hate the words, but
Speaker 2: credit card. I had a credit card, I had income protection,
Speaker 2: credit card protection, travel insurance, health insurance.
Speaker 6: My dog has pet insurance. Like I have all the insurances.
Speaker 2: But that is because yes, I had it is keep
Speaker 2: talking to me speaking her language.
Speaker 6: I had a mum who instilled that.
Speaker 2: Yes, but because of the fact that I know what
Speaker 2: life would have been like post having my injury and
Speaker 2: the effect that it would have had on my family
Speaker 2: if I didn't have those things, I now know how
Speaker 2: important it is. So again, this is something that it
Speaker 2: shouldn't be. You know, you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 2: Let's all know this insurance is pivotal.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when you say you had all the insurances, did
Speaker 5: you go and see a financial advisor or were these
Speaker 5: just like incidental insurances that you collected because you've got
Speaker 5: a credit card and it kind of came with bonus
Speaker 5: insurance Like you mentioned one of my favorite types of insurance,
Speaker 5: which is income protection.
Speaker 2: How did that benefit you. Income protection benefit me because
Speaker 2: it actually paid the gap between my disability support pension
Speaker 2: and my wage for how long? Really good until I
Speaker 2: was able to work again. Oh very cool.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 5: Do you know how often it is that I talk
Speaker 5: to somebody who has experienced an injury and they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: it was the worst I didn't have.
Speaker 2: But in saying that protection saying that bearing in mind
Speaker 2: that if I continued to work every year, I may
Speaker 2: or may not have been entitled to a pay rise,
Speaker 2: My income protection remains the same no matter how old
Speaker 2: I was, hence why she works. But you know it
Speaker 2: was it was there to provide me with the means
Speaker 2: to an end. I love that. I couldn't love that more.
Speaker 5: When it comes to income protection, though, I think a
Speaker 5: lot of people, oh my gosh, that's like a free ride, right,
Speaker 5: you get your income for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: You're right.
Speaker 5: It doesn't increase, it doesn't go up in line with CPI,
Speaker 5: and it's actually in Australia it could be up to
Speaker 5: eighty percent, but more commonly it's only seventy five percent
Speaker 5: of your regular income. If you could prove it so
Speaker 5: your actual taxable income each and every single year on
Speaker 5: top of that, that income protection is taxed. It's not
Speaker 5: an insurance payout that you don't have to pay tax
Speaker 5: on because it's actually seen as an income And a
Speaker 5: couple of weeks ago, I think last week, actually, Beck,
Speaker 5: you and I talked about tax and how it works.
Speaker 5: You literally pay tax on your income protection. So it's
Speaker 5: not nearly and I'm sure you can probably attest to this.
Speaker 5: It's not nearly as sexy as you think it is,
Speaker 5: but it is literally a means to an end, to
Speaker 5: mean that you maybe don't have to sell as many things,
Speaker 5: or you don't have to move back in with your
Speaker 5: parents should the worst happen. What other insurances kind of
Speaker 5: propped you up during that time or did the fact
Speaker 5: that your injury happened overseas impact the fact that you
Speaker 5: could claim on any of them?
Speaker 2: No, so, wow, she was nicely insured.
Speaker 6: I was nicely insured.
Speaker 2: I mean the travel insurance paid for the two and
Speaker 2: a half weeks that I was in the hospital in Bali.
Speaker 2: And let me tell you, the medical team in Bali
Speaker 2: absolutely milked that because I should have been brought home
Speaker 2: much another moment was but also by the time I
Speaker 2: was brought home. I was brought home on an emergency
Speaker 2: air that's so that was hundreds of thousands of dollars,
Speaker 2: So I mean, yes, it did have a great impact
Speaker 2: in that. But then moving forward, I did have private
Speaker 2: health insurance, so I mean that put me in a
Speaker 2: private room as opposed to being in a communal room.
Speaker 2: But I had total permanent disability as well, which was
Speaker 2: a I mean, we've gone through some of the figures
Speaker 2: associated with having this injury, so that payout within itself
Speaker 2: paid for the incidentals that I needed in life, like
Speaker 2: the catheters, and you know, those little bits and pauses
Speaker 2: that people just aren't aware of exactly.
Speaker 5: And I guess until having a deep conversation with someone
Speaker 5: who's experienced this, you don't know the semantics around their situation, because,
Speaker 5: as you said before, we could talk to five or
Speaker 5: even ten quadriplegics, and their circumstances are different. And I think,
Speaker 5: as somebody who's never experienced this, and you know, let's
Speaker 5: pretend I've never even met anybody who's a quadriplegic before,
Speaker 5: you might just assume that it's a blanket term. That
Speaker 5: means that if you have quadriplegia. You're exactly the same
Speaker 5: as everybody else in that circumstance, and it just.
Speaker 2: Couldn't be more wrong. And I think it's also just.
Speaker 5: So interesting you going, all right, well, it cost me
Speaker 5: a dollars sixty five to p Like, to me, that's
Speaker 5: really messed up that that's the case. But it's also
Speaker 5: so insightful to go, Okay, this is why we need
Speaker 5: better funding, because that stuff adds up eighty six thousand
Speaker 5: dollars a year to do what I take for granted
Speaker 5: like that is from my perspective, wildly unfair, because that's
Speaker 5: actually even higher than the median income here in Australia.
Speaker 5: The median person here in Australia owns sixty five thousand
Speaker 5: dollars a year, and just for you to do a
Speaker 5: wee and go to the bathroom in a very normal
Speaker 5: way for you is costing you way more than that.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm open and honest in saying that my tpdpayout
Speaker 2: was one hundred grand and eighty six thousand was continent products.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 5: Also, we already discussed earlier in the first half of
Speaker 5: the episode that the average cost of quadriplegia here in
Speaker 5: Australia is eleven million dollars, so that's a drop in
Speaker 5: the ocean. Like from my perspective, that's not nearly enough.
Speaker 5: And often when we talk about it as somebody who
Speaker 5: literally would write insurance policies, right, Like my job as
Speaker 5: a financial advisor was to make sure that you had
Speaker 5: a wealth creation strategy and that we could you know,
Speaker 5: do budget and cash loo and put you in the
Speaker 5: best position that your superannuation was looking really sexy, but
Speaker 5: then also that your insurances were in place, because if
Speaker 5: anything ever happened, I would hate for your wealth creation
Speaker 5: strategy to fall off the bandwagon or you not to
Speaker 5: be able to retire and have the life that you deserve.
Speaker 5: And the amount of times I would talk to people
Speaker 5: and they're like, oh, yeah, like a TBD pay it
Speaker 5: out of one hundred grand, that's more than enough, fe
Speaker 5: and often.
Speaker 2: It's not enough.
Speaker 5: Would have to sit down with clients and be like, well, actually,
Speaker 5: I don't think that's enough because we're not just talking
Speaker 5: about the cost of you know, the things that you need,
Speaker 5: but we're talking about changes to your home, lifestyle changes,
Speaker 5: loss of income. Yes, we would be able to claim
Speaker 5: on income protection, but there are lots of top ups
Speaker 5: that I don't think you understand. And then even just
Speaker 5: things like life insurance, you would explain to somebody, Okay, cool,
Speaker 5: you know I've run the numbers. You're an adult male
Speaker 5: and you have two young kids and a wife. I
Speaker 5: think you need a three and a half million dollar
Speaker 5: life insurance policy vitrue.
Speaker 2: I don't need that.
Speaker 5: Like my house is only worth eight hundred grand. You'd
Speaker 5: be like, I don't think you understand how much your
Speaker 5: life is worth until your family are going through something
Speaker 5: really traumaus that.
Speaker 2: We cannot put a price on our own lives, like
Speaker 2: we can't comprehend how much our life is worth exactly
Speaker 2: those works. It's wild, isn't it. So look at what we.
Speaker 4: Can do to protect ourselves now, and different types of insurances,
Speaker 4: because you know I love talking about insurances.
Speaker 2: I you do not. You're both looking at me like
Speaker 2: here comes the boring your heart.
Speaker 5: But it's so important to understand this, and there are many,
Speaker 5: many different types of insurance. But when it comes to
Speaker 5: the financial advice landscape and personal insurance, there are four
Speaker 5: different types of personal insurance. So you have income protection,
Speaker 5: which from my perspective is my favorite type. Of insurance
Speaker 5: that's going to replace your income should something happen to you.
Speaker 5: We have total and permanent disability, which is essentially, if
Speaker 5: you sustain an injury that totally im permanently disables you,
Speaker 5: that is a lot of some payment that gets paid out.
Speaker 5: There is an insurance called trauma insurance, so if you
Speaker 5: experience a traumatic event, that will pay out. It's actually
Speaker 5: very different to total and permanent disability, so trauma insurance
Speaker 5: pays out for things like cancers and melanoma. It pays
Speaker 5: out for genuine traumatic events, not just total and permanent disability.
Speaker 5: And then we have life insurance, which I think most
Speaker 5: people would understand. Obviously, it seems relatively easy to claim
Speaker 5: on life insurance.
Speaker 2: All you have to do is die.
Speaker 5: However, there are also lots of different circumstances where you
Speaker 5: might be able to access that early. So as a
Speaker 5: financial advisor, my most important one would be income protection
Speaker 5: because at the end of the day, if you crash
Speaker 5: your car and you have car insurance, we can replace
Speaker 5: your car. But if we crash your car and you
Speaker 5: get injured, your car might be replaceable, but your income
Speaker 5: is not. So from my perspective, that's the most important
Speaker 5: type of insurance that we have, and so they're the
Speaker 5: personal types of insurance. Then there's private health insurance, which
Speaker 5: I think we need to address here because when it
Speaker 5: comes to disability and experiencing things like this, you don't
Speaker 5: know what you need until you really need it, Andrehanna,
Speaker 5: and you're probably a really good advocate for weighing in here.
Speaker 5: Is private health insurance worth it?
Speaker 2: I'm going to have an internal and external debate about
Speaker 2: that one is yeah, and then it's going to cost
Speaker 2: me more money.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Sorry. Look it's funny because there is the Victorian Spinal Service,
Speaker 2: which is the hospital that services the community of people
Speaker 2: with spinal cord Introduce, which is a public hospital, and
Speaker 2: I had private health insurance, and every time I go in,
Speaker 2: even for a day appointment, they asked me do I
Speaker 2: want to go in as a private or a public?
Speaker 2: And I always say I want to go in as
Speaker 2: public because I don't want to pay the fight. What
Speaker 2: am I paying that five dollars? I only just I've
Speaker 2: always had extras because I love my teeth and I
Speaker 2: love my access to physios and things like that. But
Speaker 2: I've only just put hospital cover back on because I
Speaker 2: am planning a family. But to completely digress in the
Speaker 2: way of insurance. It's something I am going to throw
Speaker 2: in there, which I'm sure you probably wouldn't have even
Speaker 2: thought of. Is so pervotal for the disability community is
Speaker 2: contents insurance. And that is because if anything happens to
Speaker 2: your home and your mobility aids or the things that
Speaker 2: you need to live your life in your home, they
Speaker 2: will be covered. Yeah, that's from wheelchair to shower chair.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that is a stunning addition, I think because often
Speaker 5: people really gloss over content.
Speaker 2: And you have to list them when you are getting
Speaker 2: your policies. You make sure that they're on there. I mean, yes,
Speaker 2: our jury and everything and our TVs are important, But
Speaker 2: I know many people who have had instances where I
Speaker 2: mean I used to go to the drive through coffee shop.
Speaker 2: I'd leave my house and I'd actually leave my chair
Speaker 2: in the driveway of my house and I'd just jump
Speaker 2: in my house. But I drive through coffee shop. That's elite. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but so I wouldn't have to like pull my chair apart,
Speaker 2: I just like leave it get a coffee. And Mum
Speaker 2: would always say me, someone's going to pinch your chair
Speaker 2: one day, and I've actually had a friend whose wheelchair
Speaker 2: was stolen, so he went for a rosted on his
Speaker 2: back and parked up his chair and his chair was stolen.
Speaker 2: So I mean, have contents insurance so that your mobility
Speaker 2: aids and the things that you require are taken care
Speaker 2: of as well.
Speaker 5: I could not agree with that on that absolute scum
Speaker 5: if you are stealing a whee, that is like the
Speaker 5: war level line. Oh, I just I can't adding to that.
Speaker 5: Another really important insurance that we touched on and the
Speaker 5: start of this episode is travel insurance, and we went
Speaker 5: on and on about that. I don't think we could be,
Speaker 5: you know, more in favor of ensuring that you have
Speaker 5: travel insurance, but I also would take it a step further.
Speaker 5: And I know this, you know, again really privileged, But
Speaker 5: if you can't afford to pay for travel insurance, you
Speaker 5: probably can't afford to go on that holiday.
Speaker 2: Preach, full stop, end of story.
Speaker 5: If you're not adding that to your travel plans, Like
Speaker 5: I'm really sorry, but you shouldn't be going on the
Speaker 5: holiday in the first place. Like the risk from my
Speaker 5: perspective is just far too high to the point where
Speaker 5: you guys won't be surprised about this. I remember talking
Speaker 5: to a friend about her travel insurance. She was like, Nah,
Speaker 5: I'm not going to get it. I literally bought it
Speaker 5: for her. I was like, I'm so sorry, Like I
Speaker 5: bought you this as a little travel present. Like it's
Speaker 5: just not happening.
Speaker 2: It's not me trying to be nice. It's me knowing
Speaker 2: the industry.
Speaker 5: And I mean, I have a very I guess, cynical
Speaker 5: view of stuff like this because and I was saying
Speaker 5: this to you earlier, and I'm in this beautiful position
Speaker 5: where you get to work with people and wealth creation.
Speaker 5: You get to work with people to you know, set
Speaker 5: up their lives and you know, put them in a
Speaker 5: position that they never dreamed they'd ever be in. One
Speaker 5: of those things is ensuring that they appropriately insure it.
Speaker 5: And some of the times your clients come back to
Speaker 5: you with really significant injuries or illnesses, or sometimes your
Speaker 5: clients don't come back and their partners do, and it's heartbreaking.
Speaker 5: It is the worst thing in the world to go through.
Speaker 5: But one of the things when I was a financial
Speaker 5: advisor was knowing that I was the right person to
Speaker 5: help them through that process. I would bend over backwards
Speaker 5: to make sure that we got that claim in and
Speaker 5: that claim was paid out asap to make sure that
Speaker 5: that family was in the best possible position. But having
Speaker 5: exposure to things like that really twists and warps your
Speaker 5: view of what happens in the world. And the amount
Speaker 5: of people that go, oh, that won't happen to me,
Speaker 5: I go, will it?
Speaker 4: Can?
Speaker 2: It does?
Speaker 5: Like I have had clients call and say, hey, I'm
Speaker 5: really sorry. My husband literally got hit by a bus
Speaker 5: on the way to work. He's going to be okay,
Speaker 5: but he's in a coma. I have had, you know,
Speaker 5: situations like yours, Rihanna, and where a freak accident happened
Speaker 5: while someone was living their best life and they need
Speaker 5: to be medivacked back to Australia. And even just knowing
Speaker 5: how to go through that process. I don't think it's
Speaker 5: a privilege. I think it's you know, really sad that
Speaker 5: I know that process because it means that I know
Speaker 5: people who have gone through these circumstances. But that is
Speaker 5: why I am so wildly passionate about insurance. And when
Speaker 5: I jump up and down say it's my favorite, it's
Speaker 5: not me being fluffy, it's me going this is the
Speaker 5: difference between you having to live or minimum wage and
Speaker 5: never creating the life that you deserve and you being
Speaker 5: able to create the life you deserve and live with
Speaker 5: a disability, because that's entirely possible, right and Rihanna and
Speaker 5: you are literally one of the best advocates of this,
Speaker 5: like you just embrace life and.
Speaker 2: Figure if it flag, get travel insurance or die in
Speaker 2: my case, and that was and that's the fact, like, yes,
Speaker 2: I won't sugarcoated. Had I have not had travel insurance,
Speaker 2: I would not be here. And I say that all
Speaker 2: the time. You know, my audience when I first started
Speaker 2: speaking were year twelve students who are about to go
Speaker 2: on school is And I was like, it reminds me
Speaker 2: of that episode of Mean Girls, of the episode that
Speaker 2: Mean Girls We're going to take just like if you
Speaker 2: have sex, you will die. You will get pregnant and
Speaker 2: you you will and you will die. You know, I
Speaker 2: would say, you know, not in those words, but I'd
Speaker 2: be like, exactly what you do go on a holiday
Speaker 2: and you don't have travel insurance, you will die. You
Speaker 2: will die or get some kind of weird infection or
Speaker 2: something's going to happen, you know, like it's not going
Speaker 2: to be a good outcome either way, you know, and
Speaker 2: I look forward to the day where we're actually not
Speaker 2: allowed to travel unless we do have that insurance.
Speaker 5: I think it should be the rules like they're the
Speaker 5: she's on the money rules, Like you're going against the
Speaker 5: she's on the money values if you're traveling without travel insurance.
Speaker 2: I just think it's so important.
Speaker 5: And I mean, if you don't want to hear that,
Speaker 5: I think you shouldn't be going on a holiday if
Speaker 5: you can't afford it. Like I kind of don't care
Speaker 5: because it's put you in the best possible position. But
Speaker 5: I guess that leads into we only have time for
Speaker 5: one more question, and I want to ask you. It's
Speaker 5: more of a personal question around and it's around your mindset.
Speaker 5: Like the second I met you, and I know this
Speaker 5: sounds really fluffy, but we really connected. I was like,
Speaker 5: far out, this is the type of person that I
Speaker 5: would want to surround me, Like your mindset is beautiful.
Speaker 2: You are such a vibe.
Speaker 5: How are you such a vibe after going through fourteen
Speaker 5: years of things that you know, a lot of people
Speaker 5: end up really disheartened with a lot of people end
Speaker 5: up really salty about a lot of people end up
Speaker 5: with a really negative mindset about And I mean, we've
Speaker 5: all come across an angry person in a wheelchair, right, Which.
Speaker 2: Would be fair enough, because which is like the way
Speaker 2: of the world shoulders. Yeah, it's so fair.
Speaker 5: But how are you just like this shining light of
Speaker 5: positivity and this type of person that attracts everybody.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's because I have perspective. I mean,
Speaker 2: for me, it was no matter what happened to me,
Speaker 2: there was always somebody out there that was worse off.
Speaker 2: And that was in actual fact, like I would have
Speaker 2: days where Mum would push me into the kitchen of
Speaker 2: the hospital and I would see people with acquired brain
Speaker 2: injuries and people who are completely nonverbal and I'd be
Speaker 2: blowing my eyes at because I was twenty years old
Speaker 2: and my life was so shit at that point, and
Speaker 2: Mum would say to me, at least you can make
Speaker 2: your own decisions, at least you can communicate your needs.
Speaker 2: And I always go back to that moment when I'm
Speaker 2: feeling really shit from a perspective of somebody living with
Speaker 2: a disability. Again, still same kind of thing. You know,
Speaker 2: I have created a life based on, yes, the need,
Speaker 2: but also.
Speaker 6: The want of life.
Speaker 2: You know, I was twenty, and I think that that's
Speaker 2: probably a good time. I mean, nobody wants to be injured,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to wish that upon anyone.
Speaker 6: But you know, I had a choice.
Speaker 2: I could give up all the goals and ambitions that
Speaker 2: I had, or I could work towards them. I also
Speaker 2: do say that the fact that I didn't have and
Speaker 2: this is so bizarre to me, the fact that I
Speaker 2: didn't have easy access to the things I needed made
Speaker 2: me work harder. So, you know, like because I didn't
Speaker 2: have funding and because I could see the toll that
Speaker 2: this was taking on my family, like I moved out.
Speaker 6: I've always been the.
Speaker 2: Girl who, like I couldn't wait to turn fourteen in
Speaker 2: nine months so I could work at mackets, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I've always been that person who wanted
Speaker 2: to be able to take care of myself. So when
Speaker 2: that couldn't happen, I just worked that bit harder and
Speaker 2: it wasn't easy. But also, you know, I now get
Speaker 2: to go and you know, literally roll into a place
Speaker 2: where I watch people every single day take back control
Speaker 2: of their lives. And that is my facility, and that
Speaker 2: gives me a reason to just keep going and conversations
Speaker 2: like this, like, you know, insurance gets you horny victoria,
Speaker 2: but disability allies horny people, you know, Like I love
Speaker 2: that we can have these conversations because now the conversation
Speaker 2: is not going to end here.
Speaker 5: No, and it shouldn't end here unfortunately, is going to
Speaker 5: end your right episode by but also before we go, actually.
Speaker 2: Another little plug.
Speaker 5: I have had a few people sliding into my DMS
Speaker 5: on Instagram asking Victoria, where can we get our life insurance?
Speaker 5: And our personal insurance is sorted and our recommendation is
Speaker 5: a company called sky Wealth. And the reason I recommend
Speaker 5: sky Wealth is one it's run by one of my
Speaker 5: good friends, Phil Thompson, who actually took on a lot
Speaker 5: of my clients when I left the industry, so you know,
Speaker 5: I trust him. It's legit. But he essentially is an
Speaker 5: insurance specialist. He doesn't do wealth, he doesn't do superanuation.
Speaker 5: He just does insurance, which means he's going to be
Speaker 5: a little bit cheaper because financial advice can be prohibitive,
Speaker 5: but I promise you this is not.
Speaker 2: And he does like.
Speaker 5: A fifteen minute free call at the start, so if
Speaker 5: you want to contact them, no, I feel like it's
Speaker 5: just really important. I know that sounds like a shameless plug,
Speaker 5: and he definitely doesn't pay me to say this lack.
Speaker 5: He would probably be mortified that I'm talking about him
Speaker 5: so publicly, but I'll pop all of his information in
Speaker 5: our show notes. And then also, if you want to
Speaker 5: get matched with any other type of financial advice or
Speaker 5: mortgage broking professional, there's actually a part on our sh
Speaker 5: is on the Money website where you can get mashed
Speaker 5: with a mortgage broker or a financial advisor that she's
Speaker 5: on the Money community knows and loves.
Speaker 2: So you can also go and check that out.
Speaker 5: But for people who have really resonated with you and
Speaker 5: your cause and what you do, where can we learn
Speaker 5: more about you and more about your facility which is friggin.
Speaker 2: Incredible shameful plug?
Speaker 5: It is not shameful. I literally asked for it. I
Speaker 5: literally asked you to plug yourself here.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, plug away, But we don't have enough time. Someone,
Speaker 2: we do it quick, quick. Rihanna Tracy my will life,
Speaker 2: because my will Life.
Speaker 5: I love that. That's her Instagram handle? And what is
Speaker 5: your facility? How can we support that?
Speaker 6: So?
Speaker 2: My facility is a not for profit organization. It is
Speaker 2: the only type in Australia. Amazing. It is called the
Speaker 2: Next Step Spinal Cord Injury Recovery and Wellness Center, and
Speaker 2: that is because it literally is the next step. We
Speaker 2: don't just treat people with spinal cord injuries, we don't
Speaker 2: just treat people with disabilities. We now treat anybody who
Speaker 2: really wants to take the next step in their life. Adore,
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 4: It's so nice to hear your story and hear your perspective.
Speaker 4: You've really definitely change my view on a lot of things.
Speaker 4: So thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: It won't be the last time. We will see you
Speaker 2: on Friday, guys, See you guys. Bye.
Speaker 5: The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
Speaker 5: in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
Speaker 5: on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
Speaker 5: not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision.
Speaker 2: If you do choose to buy a financial product.
Speaker 5: Read the PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored
Speaker 5: towards your needs. Victoria Divine and She's on the Money
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