Critical Illness Insurance

Critical illnesses and similar medical events are really expensive. Sadly, they send many people into bankruptcy – even people who have health insurance.

In fact, 68% of people who file medical bankruptcy had health insurance.

What is Critical Illness Insurance?

A critical illness insurance policy will pay a lump sum if you are diagnosed with certain illnesses or medical events. These may include, among other things:

• Most cancers
• Heart attack
• Stroke

Unexpected Problems with Critical Illness

Beyond the obvious problem, if you get that dreaded diagnosis, you’ll have a lot of expenses.

To begin, you’ll have to pay the deductible and out-of-pocket expenses in your health insurance plan (usually thousands of dollars). And these payments don’t cover related expenses – you might have to travel somewhere to receive care or you might opt for experimental treatments that your insurance doesn’t cover.

You’ll almost certainly have to miss a significant amount of work. Most people don’t think about that.

When you have a life-threatening medical crisis, you certainly don’t need this kind of significant financial stress in your life!

How Critical Illness Insurance Works

A critical illness insurance plan provides you with a lump sum of cash if you’re diagnosed with a critical illness like cancer. It also will pay benefits if you have a heart attack or stroke.

Usually you can get benefits from $20,000 – $50,000. That money can be used to help you pay your deductible and out-of-pocket expenses on your health insurance plan, and to cover other expenses related to missing work or whatever. You can do with it what you want.

You can also find plans with lower values (in the $5,000-$10,000 range) that are designed to help you meet your health insurance deductible and out-of-pocket max.

An Added Bonus

Your critical illness policy will pay the benefit to your designated beneficiary if you die. So if, heaven forbid, you have a heart attack that kills you, the policy is basically a term life insurance benefit. And if you survive, of course, then you’ll have the money to help meet your short-term financial needs.