Consumers are discovering that their standard health benefits are not always providing enough.
The latest data from the American Association of Critical Illness has shown that among the 1.5 million people in the United States who will declare bankruptcy at 2013, 60 percent of them will have done so out of a lack of ability to cover their medical bills – a situation which could have been prevented in many cases through supplementary critical illness insurance.
This circumstance has increased by 50 percent over the span of the last six years.
Among those who have declared bankruptcy as a result of medical costs, 78 percent are covered by a standard health plan. However, they are still faced with high out of pocket expenses from co-payments, deductibles, and daily living expenses. Industry experts believe that the growth of this trend partly explains why such a large number of people are turning to critical illness insurance to supplement the medical coverage that they already have.
This inclination toward critical illness insurance is an increasingly common effort to help fill the gap.
According to the founder of an American Independent Marketing supported critical illness insurance platform, John Wane, “While health insurance does a decent job paying for most hospital, doctor, and prescription drug expenses, there are far too many costs it just doesn’t cover – which can result in severe financial hardship.”
Wane also pointed out that many people forget that they will need to be able to compensate for the loss of some or all of the typical income when the sick individual is not able to work throughout the length of the sickness. Critical illness insurance is being picked up to help with that issue, pay the mortgage or rent, and cover additional living expenses above and beyond strictly medical.
Though the recent healthcare reforms are making it easier for individuals who have had cancer and other diseases to be able to obtain health coverage, because insurers will no longer be able to refuse coverage to individuals with pre-existing medical conditions, the changes won’t fill the gap that is closed by supplemental critical illness insurance for living expenses, high deductibles, and other out of pocket costs. The more consumers learn about this issue as they look into their health coverage, the more they are working to take matters into their own hands to protect themselves.