Angelina Jolie had made news with her preventive operation. She had both her breasts and ovaries removed since she had tested positive for the BRCA 1 gene that is associated with breast and ovarian cancer.
This move to prevent a disease from happening by operating and removing the source of the disease is catching up. However, it is not a viable option for most of the women who would like to perform this medical surgery since the health insurance scheme doesn’t cover it.
The percentage of women who carried the gene has an 85% risk of developing breast cancer while 20% of them have a risk of developing ovarian cancer. If a woman wants to increase the chance of her survival, then she will either have to go through the state healthcare system or pay for the surgeries themselves.
This system is set to change in New Zealand at least since Southern Cross health insurer are thinking of increasing the gambit of their policies by including preventive treatments like double mastectomy in its purview.
The Southern Cross has decided to broaden their policies to include preventive treatments or prophylactic treatments, as they are referred to in medical jargon.
The head of product and marketing for Southern Cross, Chris Watney said that they have to change with the change in the medical world. Nowadays people are going for genetic testing to identify if they are at a risk of life threatening diseases and going ahead with medical treatments that will help them prevent it.
Southern Cross wants to be there for their members so that if they feel that a prophylactic surgery is the best way to go for them in the case of a disease, then they will not have to think twice before going ahead and opting for it. It is a difficult decision, emotionally and they do not want to add to the burden of it.
Prophylactic surgery is life saving and the benefits offered by Southern Cross includes an allowance of $30,000 to $50,000 for a lifetime and will also include funding for breast reconstruction. The allowance for prophylactic surgery will be included in Southern Cross Health Society in April.
Interest.co.nz reported that Southern Cross already has over 150 prophylactic surgeries every year. Most of these were associated with breast, ovarian and testicular cancer.
In order to help the members, Southern Cross has also decided to remove the $10,000 limit on the treatment so that they can get peace of mind. This will also get them more members as compared to the other health insurers.
Thanks to Angelina Jolie and her decision to make her surgery public, the whole health care system will get a push and this will make things so much easier for those opting for prophylactic diseases.
She had a tough struggle against her disease and had come out stronger. Angelina Jolie was fully supported by her husband Brad Pitt who kept on making sure that she never let go of her positive self image.
Angelina Jolie had recently directed her husband in a movie By the Sea, where the two even acted together. They started filming the film a few weeks after they tied the knot and she has informed The Spec that it was a test of their relationship.
Jolie and Pitt had previously worked together in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She said that the experience of working on this film was very different from the previous one they had worked on together.