HEALTH/BENEFITS
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Survival Comes With A Massive Price Tag As more people survive cancer, heart attacks and stroke, they find the price of survival is high. Critical illness insurance can help pay the bills. By Pam Jenkins
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uick quiz: Which insurance coverage is among the fastest-growing workplace benefits? If you said critical illness insurance, give yourself a gold star. According to LIMRA, critical illness sales were up 14% last year — double the already healthy 7% jump in overall workplace benefits sales, which rose to nearly $7.7 billion in new premium in 2019.
Meeting A Critical Need
The reason for critical illness insurance’s continued growth is painfully clear. Cardiovascular disease — heart attacks, strokes and the like — has been the leading killer of people in the U.S. for decades. 42
And cancer will claim more than 600,000 lives this year. They’re the top two causes of adult death in this country. Health experts don’t see a change in these trends anytime soon. The American Heart Association predicts 40% of the U.S. population will suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease by 2030 — that’s more than 100 million people. And the American Cancer Society expects more than 1.8 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed this year. On the positive side, advances in medical treatment, technology and early detection mean many more people are surviving cancer and heart attacks. Decades ago, a heart attack killed up to half its victims within a few days. Now, more than 90% of people who suffer a heart attack survive, Harvard Medical School reports. Cancer survival rates have also increased substantially in the past several decades. But living through a heart attack, a stroke or cancer comes with a big price tag. The National Institutes of Health estimates that the cost of cancer care
InsuranceNewsNet Magazine » October 2020
in the U.S. will reach $157 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, the American Heart Association projects that the cost for cardiovascular disease treatment will more than double from $318 billion this year to $749 billion by 2035. The indirect costs of cardiovascular disease — lost time at work, paying for additional services at home, transportation, child care and other expenses — will leap more than 55% to $368 billion during that time. No matter how robust your clients’ major medical insurance plans are, they won’t cover all these expenses. High deductibles, copayments and indirect expenses not covered by insurance can leave survivors with overwhelming bills. In fact, a recent study published in the American Journal of Medicine showed 42% of new cancer patients lose all of their life savings — an average of about $92,000 — in two years because of the cost of treatment. Nearly two-thirds of cancer patients are in debt because of their treatment, and 55% of them owe at least $10,000, researchers found after tracking 9.5 million cancer patients from 2000 to 2012.
New Critical Illness Plans Meet Evolving Needs
You can help your clients make the valuable financial protection of critical illness insurance available to their employees without investing more precious dollars in their benefits plan. Critical illness insurance is usually offered as a voluntary benefit on a group or individual platform, so employees can select the coverage and level of protection that meets their needs — and pay for it themselves. The option of attained-age pricing also can make this coverage more affordable, especially with a younger employee population. Critical illness insurance is usually not available — or it’s too expensive — for individuals to buy on their own. The ability to get this coverage affordably and conveniently at work is a perk that will help employees appreciate the value of their benefits package. In addition, they don’t have to worry about qualifying for coverage if it’s offered on a guaranteed-issue basis. The benefits industry is responding by introducing new versions of critical illness insurance that add even more value. Here are some of the enhancements to