Should I Buy?

Question: Should I Buy Supplemental Health Insurance?
Answer:
That depends on several factors:
Are you at high risk for serious illness, accidents, or hospitalization?
Do you need the peace of mind that having additional insurance coverage can bring you?
Can you afford supplemental coverage?
If you answered yes to these questions, you may want to look into supplemental health insurance, which offers cash benefits to defray medical costs and other expenses incurred due to sickness or injury.
There are three main types of supplemental health policies:
Disease- or condition-specific policies - These policies offer you a cash benefit if you are diagnosed with a particular disease, such as cancer. Often, payment is made on a per day basis, but sometimes disease-specific policies offer benefits per medical procedure.
Accident policies - These policies pay you (or your family, in the event of your death) a cash benefit if an accident occurs. Only accidents which are specified in the policy declaration are eligible for payment. The amount of the payment may depend on the degree of injury. For example, in death & dismemberment policies, the insured may receive a percentage of the full death benefit if he or she receives a serious injury, such as loss of limb.
Hospital indemnity policies - These policies offer a cash benefit to the insured if he or she becomes hospitalized. Payment is made directly to the insured (or his or her beneficiary) on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Costs

Supplemental health insurance policies are generally less expensive than regular health insurance. The lower cost is directly attributable to the lower benefit amounts that are offered as compared with traditional health insurance. For example, a traditional medical coverage might pay up to $1 million in total medical costs where a supplemental policy might cap benefits, for example, at $50,000. The actual dollar limit of benefits is listed in the policy.
In some cases, this is the only health insurance that an applicant can find or can afford; in these cases it is better to have some limited coverage than having no health insurance at all.
Combining policies without co-ordination of benefits
Traditional health insurance policies have a provision that allows the insurance company to reduce benefits for expenses that are paid by another health insurance policy. For example, if you break your arm in an auto accident, your regular health insurance usually does not pay because the auto insurance covers all of the medical costs.
Supplemental health insurance works in the opposite way. Using the same example, supplemental insurance would pay a cash benefit even though all of the medical bills had already been paid by the auto insurance company. The cash might be used to pay deductibles on other policies, offset lost wages due to the medical problem or might simply be used as "mad money" just help lessen the suffering of the broken arm. It does not matter what other insurance is available nor how the benefit payment is used.
This provision makes it possible to overlap coverage and essentially allows buyers to buy as much or as little insurance as they wish or can afford.
Coverage for pre-existing medical conditions
One of the attractive features of supplemental health insurance is that it provides payment for pre-existing medical conditions when many other types of insurance exclude this benefit. Typically a waiting period of six to twelve months is required before payments are available for pre-existing medical conditions on a newly issued insurance policy.
None of the supplemental insurance plans provide for payment of pre-existing prescription drug costs. If you are paying retail price for uncovered prescription drugs, consider the Competitor Rx Discount Drug Card as an inexpensive way to lower out-of-pocket costs for uninsured drug costs.

Supplemental health insurance is a type of insurance policy designed to cover the gaps that your regular health insurance may have due to deductibles and co-payments. Supplemental health insurance covers additional expenses that your primary insurance doesn’t cover, such as lost income and living expenses. Those who should consider supplemental health insurance are the self employed, families with children, those financially unprepared to handle large medical bills or time off from work due to illness or injury, and those on Medicare. Some of the benefits of a supplemental health insurance policy include cash benefits, lower cost due to lower benefit amounts, the ability to offset lost income unlike a traditional health insurance policy, and often payment for pre-existing conditions. The most common type of supplemental policy is intended for those covered by Medicare, which doesn’t cover long term health care, at home care, nursing homes, or prescription drugs. Many seniors opt to carry a Medicare supplement in addition to long term care insurance, which protects their financial security. Unfortunately, these two supplemental insurance policies can run up to 4,000 USD annually. For many people, supplemental health insurance conjures up images of an obnoxious duck quacking “AFLAC!,” but there are many other insurance companies offering a veritable smorgasbord of supplemental health insurance policies. While a plan like AFLAC provides a cash benefit to those out of work due to illness or injury, other plans provide cash benefits for a number of specific reasons. In addition to hospital indemnity plans which provide fixed cash benefits for covered services, including hospital stays for emergencies and outpatient services, there are basic supplemental medical plans that provide fixed benefits for covered preventative medical care. For those worried about cancer, there are supplemental cancer insurance plans which give direct cash to policy holders for cancer treatments and related expenses. For situations involving a critical condition or illness, there are policies which give lump sum benefits to help pay out of pocket expenses for heart attacks, strokes, heart surgeries, cancer, and other illnesses. Statistics show that becoming unexpectedly disabled can be financially devastating for any family. Disability income protection helps guard against sudden lost income by providing a monthly benefit to help pay the bills. Long term care insurance helps policy holders deal with the high cost of long term care, including assisted living facilities, medical home care, adult day care, and so on. With the cost of regular health care spiraling ever higher for everyone, especially the self-employed, supplemental health insurance is becoming a must have for anyone looking to stay physically and financially healthy.