Care for child

It’s as simple as providing a doctor’s certificate and getting your money back – minus child-care benefits.

“When you are trying to work and you have young children in child care and they are unwell it gets very expensive,” Ms King said.

“You have to pay the fees to keep the place. I thought, wouldn’t it be great if there was some kind of insurance around that covered that gap.” Ms King, who runs baby expo company Parenting Australia, took her proposal to Telstra Businesswoman of the Year, Carole-Anne Priest, chief executive of Altiora Insurance Solutions.

“She thought it was great and the product came to the market really quickly because there was nothing out there like it,” Ms King said.

The idea of pitching insurance at the young parent market has caught on. Ms Priest visited Lloyds of London last week to discuss a number of other specifically tailored insurance products.

The child-care cover costs $61 a year for people who pay up to $200 a week in fees and $91 for those who pay more than $200 a week.

Ms King said the daily cost of child care in Sydney ranged from $70 to $120 depending on the child-care centre.

Working mother Julie Blair took out the cover after her 14-month-old baby Connor fell ill with gastroenteritis.

When Mrs Blair went back to full-time work as a scientist in September, her son picked up the stomach bug in his first week in child care. He then had three colds.

“In the first six weeks he came down with something different each week,” she said.

Connor attends the Stella Maris Child Care Centre in Frenchs Forest five days a week.

If he is sick for a week, the Blairs are left $425 out of pocket.

Mrs Blair decided to take out the insurance in October. “It’s more for our own peace of mind,” she said.

The cover meant that she did not have to pay out for child care on top of staying at home and losing income.

Tanya Durant from Glenwood is a single mother who works full-time.

She got the cover a few months ago after being stuck when her four-year-old daughter, Abi, had gastroenteritis and was in hospital for a week.

“Both my children are in day care. It’s a bit like a tag team – one’s sick when the other isn’t,” she said.

“I’m running out of sick days and there’s the double compounded cost factor … which is what motivated me to get the insurance.”