If all of a sudden you were an accident, would you be able to cover your lost income as well as all the co-pays and deductibles without straining your finances? There’s a good chance that even if your health insurance provides excellent coverage that an unforeseen medical emergency or stay in the hospital would hit your pocketbook hard. Supplemental health insurance is intended to help bridge the gaps that regular health insurance policies don’t cover. In addition, it can provide much needed cash to help replace any lost wages and pay for living expenses.
Supplemental health insurance works differently from standard health insurance. With standard health insurance, your policy pays your health provider or doctor for their services that they provide to you. You may have to pay a co-pay or deductible, and usually your health care provider takes care of the insurance paperwork. The benefits from your health insurance are paid directly to your doctor or other health care provider.
With supplemental health insurance, you are usually paid a fixed amount when you utilize health care services on a specific incident. As an example, if you were to fall and sprain your ankle your regular health insurance would pay the doctor bill, but you would need to pay your deductible or co-pay. The doctor’s office would bill your insurance company and bill you if there was an excess. If you had supplemental health insurance that pays $50 for a visit to the doctor, you would be able to file a claim and your supplemental insurance company would pay you $50. You could then use the $50 to pay towards your co-pay or deductible and any other expenses.
The benefits on a supplemental health insurance policy vary from policy to policy, with the differences usually having to do with the specific purpose of the policy. AFLAC, for example, is designed to help policy holders cover medical expenses that most health insurance policies do not cover by paying them in cash for doctor visits, hospital costs, or for being out of work due to an injury or illness. Other types of supplemental policies are intended to help pay for prescription costs or for paying out benefits for disabling accidents or catastrophic illnesses. Some policies are for hospitalization only and some for long-term care. There are quite a few supplemental policies designed for the purpose of paying for costs that are not covered by Medicare health insurance.
Not everyone needs supplemental health insurance. However it is a form of financial protection that can come in handy if you do not have savings or sufficient means to cover any unexpected medical costs that could crop up. Supplemental health insurance should be considered if you have small children, are self-employed, are on Medicare, or if you do not have the financial means that it would take to be able to handle large medical expenses or be away from work because of injury or illness.
The best policy for supplemental health insurance will depend on the individual and his or her circumstances and specific needs. For young families, as an example, supplemental insurance policies that pay for wellness care are very helpful. Hospital indemnity policies that pay cash benefits for parents who are unable to work due to illness or for being hospitalized would also benefit young families. For older adults, a long-term care or supplemental policy that pays a lump sum benefit for catastrophic illnesses could be very useful. A prescription benefit plan could help both families and older adults to help meet medical expenses that regular health insurance and Medicare don’t cover.
Tags: health insurance, supplemental health insurance