Are You Prepared for a Catastrophe?

An article just came out about the Toronto van attack in April 2018, in which one of the victims has recently been deemed catastrophically injured. It raises an issue that many small businesses over look when getting coverage for their employees.Catastrophic injuries are major incidents that can have a considerable impact on the lives of those who sustain the injuries. When we think of these types of events, we often think about them when they happen overseas. e.g. An employee is traveling to the US or Europe on business and something happens that requires them to visit the hospital. We cannot assume however, that our provincial coverage will take care of us. Ontario recently announced that they are proposing to scrap the OHIP's limited coverage of emergency out-of-country medical costs. Even in cases where provinces do cover medical costs, they are normally only a fraction of the total costs. It is surprising the number of people who do not take out appropriate insurance when travelling or who rely on credit card insurance to take care of them.If people ignore or downplay the importance of being covered for such events when they are overseas, imagine the number who do not consider it when they at home. We often assume that our provincial healthcare will take care of all our expenses in cases of major illness or accident. While many of the expenses are covered, there are a number that are not. This is not to suggest that people should expect to go bankrupt having to pay for medical expenses in their home province, but it does speak to the unexpected and high costs that may need to be incurred should something happen. These costs can include medicine, dental, and home care equipment.Small businesses should be considering ways in which they can help prepare their employees. The mental, emotional, physical, and financial costs of a catastrophic event are not just incurred by the employee. Companies will be affected also if their employees are unable to work or cannot afford the expenses. There are steps that small businesses can undertake to help prepare the company and its employees to deal with events when they happen. The first step is insurance, both travel insurance for incidents overseas and catastrophic insurance for major costs incurred at home. A second step may for a company to retain or engage mental healthcare professionals and counsellors to help employees should something happen.