Supplemental Health Insurance

By: EconomyWatch Content   Date: 17 February 2010

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Supplemental health insurance is a form of additional coverage that aims to fill the gaps in your primary health insurance. These gaps could be related to deductibles and co-payments. You can opt for this type of insurance to cover additional expenses that are not covered by your regular health insurance. For instance, if you could not go to work for many months due to illness, supplemental health insurance can provide for your lost income and living expenses. This insurance is ideal for families and self-employed people. Medicare recipients widely used supplemental health insurance to reduce their medical expenses, such as at home care, prescription drugs, long term health care and nursing care. However, the cost of these supplemental insurance policies can even reach $4,000 a year.

Cash Benefits ofSupplemental Health Insurance

Supplemental health insurance offers several benefits in the form of cash, offsetting lost income, payments for pre-existing ailments and lower cost owing to the lower benefits amount. If you are at high risk for serious illness or accidents, you can enjoy cash benefits by taking a supplemental insurance policy in the event of accident or disability. It is, however, important to note that the policy will only pay you or your family for types of accidents specified in it and if injury or death occurs due to any of them. If the accident results in injury, you will be paid depending upon how serious the injury is.

Types ofSupplemental Health Insurance Plans

There are a number of supplemental health insurance plans that one can choose from. Under hospital indemnity plans, the insurer gets fixed cash benefits for services that are covered, such as outpatient services and hospital stays for emergencies. If you are looking for fixed benefits for covered preventative medical care, you can opt for basic supplemental medical plans. People who have a family history of cancer can apply for supplemental cancer insurance plans. Under these plans, you will get direct cash to cover expenses related to cancer treatments. There are a number of policies offering lump-sum benefits during critical illness. Such critical conditions could be heart surgeries, heart attacks and strokes.


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