I purchased Cancer Insurance for myself nearly ten years ago, shortly after a younger relative was diagnosed with Sarcoma. After discovering the lump beneath his skin he traveled to Charleston twice for exams & traveled to Texas another couple times to receive the surgery that successfully removed the cancer and he has been cancer-free since. Needless to say, it was quite a scare for him.
No one likes to think about getting cancer, but according to the American Cancer Society it will affect 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women. You'll discover at www.cancer.org, 1 in 5 people with health insurance who are diagnosed with cancer use all or most of their savings because of the financial cost of dealing with cancer. This statistic caught me off guard, but then I realized what most people overlook: there are direct costs and also indirect costs people incur when battling cancer.
The direct costs are the ones that immediately pop into your mind: chemotherapy, X-rays, hospital rooms, drugs and medicine. The shocking part? They only account for 35% of cancer-related expenses. The other 65% are made up of the indirect costs, such as: missed work, missed work for a spouse, travel, child care, lodging, food expense, home recovery, and phone bills.
Cancer may not be preventable, but you can protect yourself from some of the costs. Cancer insurance can help you manage the high expenses of treatment, preserve savings, protect your family from financial hardship, and allow you to concentrate on getting well.
Our Cancer Insurance pays you benefits that can be used for non-medical cancer-related expenses that health insurance might not cover. The policy is guaranteed renewable for life, subject to change in premiums by class. Benefits are paid directly to you unless assigned, in addition to any other coverage. A neat feature that I took advantage of is the Return of Premium Rider, which allows you to receive back all of your premiums paid if you never have to file a claim. So I think of my Cancer Insurance as a savings account that also protects my finances in case I'm diagnosed with cancer.
Would your finances survive cancer treatments? While it's easy to hope for the best, it's smarter to plan for the worst. Find out if Cancer Insurance is a good fit for you.
Wow. This is something I haven't thought about. You can actually just get a cancer rider? I did not know that. Definitely something to look into...
Shannon - Having lost a good friend to cancer last year (who had NO medical insurance), I know firsthand how expensive cancer treatments can be. Would you mind emailing me some info on this?
Shannon - I had no clue there was such a thing as cancer insurance.
Did not know there was cancer insurance -- but imagine if this happens to most of us we will all be wiped out.